You Go Girl!

The gender trend is interesting to watch.

JERUSALEM - Israel's foreign minister eked out a victory Thursday in a surprisingly tight race to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as the head of the governing party, putting her in a strong position to become the country's first female leader in 34 years.

Tzipi Livni, 50, said she would immediately turn to the task of trying to cobble together a new government.

"The national responsibility (bestowed) by the public brings me to approach this job with great awe," Livni said shortly after the results were announced.

Livni, a political moderate, won 43.1 percent of the vote in the Kadima Party primary elections, compared with 42 percent for Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former military chief and defense minister, in a contest with far-reaching implications for peacemaking with the Palestinians and Syria.

Oh wait, there's more:

Livni said she would launch informal coalition talks on Friday, even though President Shimon Peres cannot officially ask her to try to put together a government until Olmert resigns. After she is assigned the task, she will have 42 days to form a new ruling coalition.

If she succeeds, she will become Israel's first female prime minister since Golda Meir stepped down in 1974. If she fails, the country will hold elections in early 2009, a year and a half ahead of schedule.

Livni is Israel's lead negotiator in peace talks with the Palestinians and a rare female power figure in a nation dominated by macho military men and a religious establishment with strict views on the role of women.

A lawyer and former agent in the Mossad spy agency, she is eager to continue the low-decibel diplomatic efforts. She says she hopes diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program will prevail, though she says all options are on the table.