JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Deadlocked talks with potential coalition partners have forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek more time to build a new government and avert a snap election, officials said on Friday.

They said Netanyahu would meet President Shimon Peres on Saturday to ask for a two-week extension after his right-wing party, the narrow victor in Israel's Jan. 22 ballot, exhausted the standard four weeks allotted to build a coalition.