Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided Wednesday to appoint Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as justice minister pending a verdict in the sexual assault case facing former justice minister Haim Ramon. Livni will continue to serve in her capacity as foreign minister.

Livni informed Olmert over the phone of her decision to take on the portfolio, which she held for a year and a half before elections last March. If Ramon is acquitted of the charges against him, Livni has agreed to hand the portfolio back to him. However, it is unclear whether Livni will continue in the position should Ramon be convicted.

The cabinet, sitting in accelerated session in a conference room in the Knesset, had been expected to approve the appointment. The vote will go to a Knesset plenum vote later Wednesday afternoon.

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If all goes as planned, this will bring an end to a one-week period in which no one held the reins of the Justice Ministry.

Mazuz has been sending very blunt messages to Olmert, via both direct and indirect means, warning of the "black hole" resulting from the failure to appoint a permanent justice minister before the temporary appointment of Meir Sheetrit ended last Thursday.

Mazuz rendered an opinion prohibiting the appointment of another acting minister of justice or the automatic transfer of the justice minister's authority to the prime minister.

Officials in the Prime Minister's Office still insist that Livni's appointment will be for one month only, if former justice minister Haim Ramon is acquitted and returns to his post.