Final results of Israel's parliamentary election confirmed yesterday that the centrist party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won the contest by a single seat over right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.

The end count did nothing to change the confusing political picture that emerged on Tuesday night, or resolve a potentially paralysing dispute between the two main parties over who should rightfully head the next government. Former premier Netanyahu was unlikely to drop the claim he has made since Tuesday's vote that he, not Ms Livni, should be given the first chance to form a coalition government, because Parliament has a broad right-wing majority that would back him.

More than 150,000 ballots from military bases, prisons and Israeli diplomatic missions still had to be counted after the bulk of civilian votes in Tuesday's national poll delivered Mrs Livni's slim majority over Mr Netanyahu's Likud. In the end, the Israel Elections Committee confirmed that Mrs Livni's Kadima party took 28 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, while Likud secured 27 seats, dashing Mr Netanyahu's hopes that the final count could swing the result his way.

But the line-up of smaller parties was also largely unchanged, and here the numbers were in his favour. Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Yisrael Beiteinu (Our Home is Israel) won 15 seats and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party has 11 seats, while left-wing Labour took just 13. Mr Netanyahu says this gives him a better chance of forming a coalition than Mrs Livni.

Attention is now on President Shimon Peres, who has nearly two weeks to decide which parliamentarian to ask to form a government. By tradition, it has been the leader of the biggest party in Parliament. But the results showed parties to the right of Kadima have 65 seats compared to 55 for Kadima and the left. Mr Lieberman surged to third place in the ballot, past the once dominant Labour party, with a call for Israeli Arabs to undergo loyalty tests. He has emerged as potential kingmaker.

"I know exactly what I am going to tell the President," he said on Israel Radio, without elaborating. He held talks with both Mr Netanyahu and Mrs Livni on Wednesday.