Following an exchange between the president and the prime minister as to who should host the meeting, Türk, Janša, Speaker Gregor Virant, presidential candidates Borut Pahor and Milan Zver, president of the opposition Positive Slovenia (PS) Zoran Janković and KNG union officials finally met at the presidential office.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, Türk assessed the meeting as good. "I have some hope that we could make progress in this way," the president said, adding that it was too early to talk about a deal. "We are working on restoring trust and resuming talks aimed at finding solutions to avoid a referendum".

Janša said the meeting had demonstrated some good will to lift the blockades threatening two key crisis measures. "I hope the good will will be kept up and will also be demonstrated at the following meetings."

At the next round, talks will be first held at the working level, to be followed by a meeting with the PM. If necessary, Türk will take part as well, he said.

Janša said some proposals by the union and the opposition on both laws were acceptable like the one that representatives of social partners and the opposition be involved in the oversight of both institutions.

"But it's impossible to discuss two more years this form of restructuring or some other and whether to manage state assets in this way or some other because the time for this has expired," Janša said.

The meeting comes after Janša invited presidential candidates for talks to try and convince them to unify their positions on key reforms and send a joint message to the public to help improve the situation in the country.

Türk meanwhile proposed a meeting in a bid to avert referenda on the bad bank and sovereign holding after he already met Parliamentary Speaker Gregor Virant on Tuesday and they agreed that there was still time to avoid a referendum by reaching a consensus on changes to the legislation.

The referendum on the sovereign holding, filed by 30 opposition MPs, was sent to the Constitutional Court by the National Assembly with the coalition hoping the vote will be banned over its unconstitutional implications.

Meanwhile, the KNG union representing chemical industry is seeking a referendum on the law establishing a bad bank. After its petition was thrown out over lack of signatures, it transpired that hundreds of these went missing somewhere between parliament and the Interior Ministry.