Israel's parliament has approved the new coalition government, clearing the way for Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert and his 25-member cabinet to be sworn in.
The vote was carried by 65 to 49.
Earlier in a policy speech to the Knesset, Mr Olmert pledged he would implement a plan to remove isolated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank but keep major enclaves forever.
'The borders of Israel that will be formed in the coming years will be significantly different from the territories under Israel's control today,' said Mr Olmert, who has vowed to set final frontiers by 2010 with or without Palestinian agreement.
Palestinians, whose government is led by the militant Hamas group, say Mr Olmert's plan will annex land and deny them a viable state.
They want Arab East Jerusalem, captured by Israel along with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, as their capital.
Mr Olmert's centrist Kadima emerged as the largest party in the general election on 28 March, winning 29 seats in the 120-member parliament.
Of his coalition partners, the centre-left Labour won 19, the ultra-Orthodox Shas 12 and the Pensioners party seven, giving him a majority of 67 MPs.
