Mrs. Meir Accepts Task of Forming New Gov’t.; Efforts So Far Deadlocked

President Ephraim Katzir officially asked Premier Golda Meir today to form a new government and Mrs. Meir accepted the task and promised to “do the utmost” to form one within the 21-day period prescribed by law. The formalities took place at the President’s residence after an hour-long private meeting between Katzir and Mrs. Meir. In her response, the Premier noted that in the coming months Israel may find itself for the first time on the road to peace, but warned that the people should also be prepared for the opposite.

Katzir charged Mrs. Meir with the task of forming a new government after two weeks of consultations with the representatives of the various parties represented in the new Knesset. Mrs. Meir, as leader of the majority Labor Alignment, was the assured designee for the job. But if she is unable to accomplish it in the allotted time, the President is free to approach someone else. According to law, the 21-day period may be extended to 42 days if necessary.

That period began officially today with Mrs. Meir’s acceptance. But unofficial coalition negotiations have been underway since the Dec. 31 elections. So far they have been fruitless. The Labor Party has been unable to reconcile the deep gap on religious issues between its two principal potential coalition partners–the Independent Liberals and the National Religious Party.

The impasse has given rise to serious talk of new elections in which Labor would seek a more decisive mandate than the 51 seats it won last month–a loss of six from the previous Knesset. One faction in the Labor Party, including Mrs. Meir, is said to favor new elections if the coalition talks break down. But another faction, headed by Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, reportedly would prefer Labor to go it alone and try to govern on the basis of its own slim majority, admittedly a risky course. Recoup Losses In New Elections

These views surfaced after a top level Labor Party meeting at Mrs. Meir’s home over the weekend. The Premier and some of her supporters were reported to believe that Labor would recoup its losses in new elections because of such positive developments as the disengagement accord with Egypt. But the Sapir faction maintained that the international situation demanded a new government to be formed without further delay. They also were inclined to believe that new elections would not improve Labour’s position and might in fact worsen it in view of soaring prices and the general belt-tightening called for by the government.

If that view prevails and a Labor-led coalition with the ILP and NRP proves impossible to form, the Labor Party could decide to establish a narrow government based on its 51 Knesset seats plus three seats held by Labor-affiliated Arabs and the seven represented by the Independent Liberals and Mrs. Shulamit Aloni’s Civil Rights List. Such a combination would give the government a bare majority of one in the Knesset. But Laborites believe they could count on the five Aguda bloc votes and the single vote of Moked and possibly the Rakah Communists on vital foreign policy issues.

Such a combination is not only shaky but anathema to many Labor Party leaders including Mrs. Meir who personally dislikes Mrs. Aloni, and who wants to avoid association with the pro-Moscow Rakah. The Labor Party has so far refused to consider a broad-based national coalition government including Likud for which the NRP has been pressing. The NRP, for its part, is said to favor the idea of new elections to recoup its losses of last month.