Netanyahu, seeking consensus, gets extension on government

Labor and Kadima back negotiations for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in a 1967 war. Israel quit Gaza in 2005, after which it was taken over by Hamas Islamists opposed to peace talks and locked in a power struggle with U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli media said Netanyahu offered Labor five ministerial jobs, including having Barak stay on as Defense minister.

But Labor faces a dilemma in that Netanyahu has pledged the job of foreign minister to Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, whose hawkish talk about the Jewish state's Arab citizens, and neighbors, has stirred controversy abroad.

Half of Labor's lawmakers vowed after talks on Thursday to fight any bid to join ranks with Netanyahu, which the party's faction leader, Eitan Cabel, insisted in broadcast remarks would "spell death" for Labor's future.

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Samia Nakhoul)