Al-Jazeera's correspondent reported that the Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, and his rival, House Speaker Benny Gantz, who is from the center, reached an agreement to form a coalition government, ending a year of political stalemate.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, signs an agreement to form a national emergency government with the leader of the Blue and White Alliance Benny Gantz," a joint statement said.
Officials from Netanyahu's Likud party and Gantz's "Blue and White" party were not available for comment, but a joint statement said the two men would meet today after progress was made in talks to form a coalition government.
The meeting that brought the two leaders together today was over an hour and a half, and they failed to bridge their points of view and reach an agreement on forming a national emergency government.
The Israel Broadcasting Corporation said earlier that the meeting held at Netanyahu's house "ended without reaching an agreement," and quoted a Likud official as saying that the dispute remained over the committee charged with appointing the judges.
Israeli opposition parties have proposed bills that stipulate "preventing a deputy charged with criminal charges from forming or chairing a government," in an indirect reference to Benjamin Netanyahu who is being prosecuted for corruption charges.
Next month in the East Jerusalem Central Court, Netanyahu's trial on charges of fraud, bribery and dishonesty will begin in three corruption cases.
Netanyahu and Gantz agree to form a national emergency government to rotate over their presidency, but they differ over the powers of the judiciary.
The negotiating teams of Likud and "Blue and White" met several hours yesterday, before they decided to raise the contentious issues to a meeting chaired by Netanyahu and Gantz, which was held this morning.
The broadcasting agency said that Gantz feared that Netanyahu would try to win representatives from the opposition to his right-wing bloc to raise the number of votes of his supporters to 61 out of 120 members of Parliament, making him indispensable.
And Gantz failed last Wednesday to form a government, which caused Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to announce the transfer of the mandate to form the government to the Knesset.
Rivlin asked the Knesset to find among its members who can, within 21 days, form a government that will have the confidence of 61 Knesset members.
Since the political impasse began a year ago, Israel has run a caretaker government headed by Netanyahu, who faces criminal charges of corruption.
Gantz had addressed Netanyahu in comments recently reported by the media: "Netanyahu, this is the moment of truth for us, either a national emergency government or a fourth election that will be costly and unjustified at the time of the current crisis."
Gantz, the former chief of staff, and Netanyahu, the prime minister, fought for the longest time in Israel's history; three electoral rounds in less than a year, all of which resulted in the dispersed Knesset Knesset, and neither of them was able to obtain sufficient support in the Knesset to form a new government.