Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni narrowly won election to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as the leader of Israel’s Kadima party, edging past her main rival, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, by just over a percentage point, according to official results released Thursday.

Mofaz’s supporters called for a recount, but Israeli media reported that he had called Livni to congratulate her on her victory and had rejected a legal adviser’s proposal that he appeal the results.

When the polls closed at 10.30 pm Wednesday, exit surveys indicated that Livni had swept to victory with a 10-point lead. But as counting of the nearly 40,000 votes progressed, the gap narrowed sharply. Before dawn, officials announced that Livni had won by 431 votes, according to Israel Radio.

Speaking outside her home in Tel Aviv, Reuters reported, Livni vowed to start work immediately on forming a new coalition that would let her succeed Olmert as prime minister.

The difference between Livni, a diplomatic 50-year-old lawyer who has led peace talks with the Palestinians, and Mofaz, a hawkish 59-year-old former general who has derided those talks, appears substantial.

If Livni fends off any possible legal challenge and succeeds in putting together a majority coalition of the 120-member Parliament, she will be the first woman to lead this country since Golda Meir in 1974. If not, the country will hold general elections three months later. Polls show the right-ring Likud party of Benjamin Netanyahu a very strong contender in such a race.

Olmert, the object of several investigations alleging that he took money illegally while mayor of Jerusalem and industry minister, called Livni to congratulate her and promise his full cooperation. He has agreed to step down once his replacement is chosen so that the police inquiry does not further interfere with matters of state, but he is likely to remain in a caretaker capacity until a government is formed. Coalition options are complex and the small victory clearly could be seen as a reduced mandate to form a government without general elections.

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