Poland sets up minority government

A besieged Leszek Balcerowicz has given up on the coalition

The Solidarity movement in Poland has set up a minority government after its centre-right partner, the Freedom Union, ended two weeks of talks on saving the coalition.

Solidarity said Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek would propose a team of new ministers to replace the five departing Freedom Union ministers within the next few days.

The Freedom Union (UW) objected to what it said was the slow pace of reform, as Poland tries to join the European Union.

Solidarity was pushing for Marian Krzaklewski to become prime minister

Analysts say Poland will now endure months of political instablity as the Catholic right-of-centre AWS-Solidarity group struggles to keep its weak adminstration afloat in the face of attempts by the leftist opposition to precipitate early elections by calling no-confidence votes.

They also say the collapse of the 30-month coalition could affect negotiations on Poland's application to join the EU.

Last week, Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, a key player in these negotiations, resigned.

EU negotiations

Mr Buzek himself has repeatedly said a minority government would be a bad option for Poland.

It is considered unlikely such a government could push next year's budget through parliament, and the former communist opposition could expect to win any resulting election.

On Tuesday the prime minister stressed that the government would "manage continuing business in hand", including European integration and economic development.

Another key point of contention between the former partners centred on who should replace Mr Buzek.

On Monday, Solidarity proposed that its political leader Marian Krzaklewski should replace Mr Buzek.

But the Freedom Union said it preferred a different candidate and said Mr Krzaklewski must give up his candidacy in this year's presidential election if he wanted to become premier.

The current government, Poland's longest serving since the return of democracy in 1989, is unpopular.

Despite high economic growth, the restructuring of industry has led to a large increase in unemployment over the last year.