Bulgarian PM unable to form government

Sergey Stanishev, Bulgaria's prime minister has announced that his Socialist party has been unable to form a government, a month after winning general elections.

The Bulgarian Parliament on Thursday rejected the minority Socialist - led coalition, a move that leaves the country without a government, and could throw a spanner in the works for Sofia's EU entry bid.

"With a lack of the necessary majority the coalition of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the (Turkish-minority-party) Movement for Rights and Freedoms reached the conclusion that their mandate for forming a government has been exhausted," Stanishev told journalists.

On Wednesday Bulgarian MPs confirmed Stanislev as prime minister - with a one vote majority - but has narrowly rejected his minority coalition made up of Socialists and ethnic Turks.

The Socialists and their allies, have 116 of parliament's 240 seats. and were forced to go it alone after ex-king Simeon Saxe-Coburg's centrists refused to join the coalition last week.

Bulgaria and Romania, next in line to join the EU bloc, are subject to a "safeguard clause" which could delay Sofia's entry date by one year to 2008.

Sofia is in the process of overhauling its judicial system and other institutional reforms as part of preparations demanded by Brussels for planned EU entry in 2007.

But the reform process is not over, and the European Commission warned on Thursday that Bulgaria had little time to lose if it is to make the grade on time.

A Brussels spokeswoman said on Thursday that the commission hopes "a strong and stable government will be formed as soon as possible and that the government will continue the preparations for accession".

"Every day counts for preparations," she added.

Brussels is due to publish a report in October assessing Bulgaria's readiness to join the 25 member block.

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