Slovenia C-Left Parties Initial Coalition Deal

We are satisfied that we initialled the programme part (of the agreement) ... I am happy that the coalition is strong.

Slovenia's centre-left parties on Thursday initialled a coalition agreement, a day before Social Democrat leader Borut Pahor was due to be confirmed as the new prime minister by parliament.

"We are satisfied that we initialled the programme part (of the agreement) ... I am happy that the coalition is strong," Pahor told reporters. The coalition agreement is expected to be revealed on Friday.

Pahor said he planned to announce the names of his ministers by the middle of next week. The appointments must then be confirmed by parliament.

The Social Democrats won 29 out of 90 parliamentary seats in September's general election, beating the centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party of outgoing Prime Minister Janez Jansa.

President Danilo Turk on Monday nominated Pahor as prime minister-designate.

Pahor signed the coalition agreement with two centre-left parties, Zares and the Liberal Democracy (LDS), and the pensioners' party Desus, which had also been a junior partner in the outgoing government. The four parties together hold 50 seats.

Pahor, a 45-year-old former fashion model, said his government would try to help the economy create new jobs despite the global financial crisis.

"Slovenia will surely face a higher number of job cuts. Our plan is to help those in the healthy sectors of economy create new jobs through an active employment policy," he said.

Analysts said the new cabinet would have to keep a lid on overall spending, curb inflation and try to maintain Slovenia's solid economic growth at a time when jobs and exports are likely to suffer because of the global downturn.

The government's Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development said earlier on Thursday that Slovenia's economic growth this year could be less than the 4.8 percent forecast in October due to a faster-than-expected international slowdown.

The small former Yugoslav republic joined the European Union and NATO in 2004 and adopted the euro in 2007.