This will be the smallest cabinet in Slovenia's history, but Janša is confident that his team will be up to the task. He labelled the cabinet as a team built on compromise and said it was the best possible in the given situation.

The line-up was agreed by coalition party heads on Thursday. Janša said at a press conference today that each party got at least two ministerial candidates. However, his Democrats (SDS), the strongest party in the coalition, will have four ministers.

SDS MP Andrej Vizjak is to take over the ministry for labour, family and social affairs and SDS MP Vinko Gorenak is to be the interior minister.

Former Development Minister Žiga Turk is to be in charge of education, science, culture and sport ministry, while SDS MP Zvonko Černač is to take over the ministry for infrastructure and spatial planning.

President of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) Karl Erjavec will be nominated for foreign minister and doctor Tomaž Gantar health minister.

The Virant List vice-president Janez Šušteršič is to be the finance minister and Ljubljana Law Faculty professor Senko Pličanič is to be in charge of the Justice and Public Administration Ministry.

SLS president Radovan Žerjav is to become the economy minister and SLS MP Franc Bogovič minister of agriculture and the environment.

NSi president Ljudmila Novak is the candidate for minister without portfolio for Slovenians abroad, and former board member of motorway company DARS Aleš Hojs is to become the defence minister.

Janša pointed out that several of the candidates were former ministers. This is necessary, he believes, as "there will not be a lot of time to spare for getting settled, given the issues that need to be tackled."

He believes that the task at hand will be the most demanding challenge since Slovenia's independence. "The work will not be easy and the team is ready."

The government's first task will be to draft and adopt a supplementary budget, said Janša. The second task will be to propose a new social agreement, as they wish "to outline in social dialogue Slovenia's exit from the crisis."

Touching on the changes passed to the government act, which caused quite a stir in the past week for cutting the number of ministries from 15 to 11 and the number of departments without portfolio from three to one, Janša said that he did not believe the changes would be submitted to a constitutional review.

He believes Slovenia cannot afford to delay the formation of the government due to diverging opinions on how departments and agencies of the government should be organised.

The changes transfer the prosecution service to the Interior Ministry, a move that was also widely criticised.

Janša said today that the prosecution could not be returned to the Justice Ministry without changing the government act, which will step into force tomorrow. "We will definitely not be dealing with this next week, but the coalition is open to arguments based on expertise."

The nomination of candidates will be submitted to parliament as the changes to the government act step into force tomorrow. The National Assembly will vote on the ministerial team as a whole, the vote is expected to be called for 10 February.

Janša will have three days after the government act changes step into force to send the list of names to National Assembly Speaker Gregor Virant.

At least three days later, each candidate will need to be interviewed by the relevant parliamentary committee. The hearings are expected to be held on Thursday and Friday.

The committee chairs will then have two days to send the opinions committees will have adopted on the candidates to the speaker and the PM-elect. The PM-elect may withdraw any candidate and propose a new name within three days after receiving the committee's opinion.