Cairo - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Wednesday urged the new Israeli government to take steps towards peace.

Mussa, however, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, he held little hope that either Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu would change Israel's policy toward the rest of the region.

"Regarding Kadima's victory, if Israel's new government proceeds in its current ways, we won't find any progress in Israel's policies," Mussa said.

"Netanyahu also must show he is ready to reach a peace between the two parties," he told dpa.

With all but one per cent of ballots in Israel's poll counted on Wednesday, Livni's centrist Kadima party remained the largest party in the 120-seat Knesset, with 28 seats, but the hardline Likud party, under Netanyahu, more than doubled its seats to 27.

"Israeli politics is passing through a period of uncertainty," Mussa said. "But Israeli policy toward the Middle East won't change." (dpa)