Israel's foreign minister resigns

David Levy announces his resignation

Israel's Foreign Minister, David Levy, has announced his resignation, the latest in a series of blows for Prime Minister Ehud Barak's tottering coalition government.

Mr Levy told a news conference at parliament that he had "no option" but to resign because of the prime minister's concessions to the Palestinians over Jerusalem.

"It is not possible to be in government and to explain things that you oppose," Mr Levy said.

His resignation was followed swiftly by a preliminary vote in parliament calling for early elections.

Prime Minister Barak: Promises to continue negotiations

Mr Barak will be able to cling to power at least until late October, since parliament is going into a three-month summer recess.

The legislation to advance the scheduled date of elections from 2003 must go through several more stages.

But BBC correspondent Jon Leyne - reporting from Jerusalem - says the margin of victory shows the opposition could bring down the government any time it chooses.

The prime minister said he was not deterred by the setbacks and would press on with his agenda, including peace talks with the Palestinians.

No replacement

In his resignation announcement, Mr Levy repeated his call to Mr Barak to try to form a government of national unity - a course neither the prime minister nor the opposition have backed.

No replacement for Mr Levy has been announced yet. One option is for Mr Barak to take on the job himself, adding to the growing list of cabinet portfolios in his hands.

On Monday, the prime minister suffered another setback when his favoured candidate for the presidency, Shimon Peres, was defeated.

The former prime minister was beaten by an politician from the opposition Likud party, Moshe Katsav.

The same day Mr Barak survived a no confidence vote in parliament, the second against his government in a month.