Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni wrote in a private note captured by cameras on Sunday that her centrist Kadima party would not join any coalition government headed by right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

The note, which Livni handed to outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Kadima at the weekly cabinet meeting, set the battle lines in what could be weeks of political bargaining after Israel's inconclusive election last Tuesday.

Shortly after polls closed, both Livni and Netanyahu laid claim to the premiership. Kadima won 28 seats in the 120-member parliament to Likud's 27, but a strong rightist bloc that emerged in the vote appeared to give Netanyahu the edge in putting together a governing majority.