Jerusalem - Israel's 120 newly-elected Knesset members gathered at the parliament building in Jerusalem Tuesday afternoon to take their oath of office, even though prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet managed to form a coalition.

The ceremony was attended by President Shimon Peres, who kicked off proceedings by addressing the legislators.

Acting Speaker Michael Eitan, the Knesset's longest-serving member, was slated to read the oath of office: "I pledge to remain loyal to the State of Israel and to fulfil my duty in the Knesset faithfully", after which each legislator would stand and confirm the oath.

Some 31 of the 120 legislators will be serving their first term in parliament. One of them, Anastasia Michaeli, is the first in the history of the Knesset to serve while pregnant, while former television journalist Nitzan Horowitz is only the second openly-gay lawmaker to enter parliament.

Horowitz and Michaeli, along with another legislator, Yohanan Plesner, also have to relinquish the foreign passports they hold, in accordance with Israeli law which forbids Knesset members from holding additional citizenship.

The Knesset, elected in the February 10 elections, contains 21 women legislators, one of whom, Tzipi Hutabeli, will, at age 30, be the youngest lawmaker in the parliament.

Peres tasked Netanyahu of the hardline Likud party on February 20 to form a government, after consultations revealed he had the best chance of putting together a coalition.

Although the premier-designate can likely form a government of 65 legislators from the Likud and smaller nationalist and ultra-Orthodox factions, he has said he prefers a wider, unity coalition.

But his efforts to woo into his prospective government the centrist Kadima faction and the centre-left Labour Party, have so far failed. (dpa)