Although Prime Minister Janez Janša has maintained that the government needs to stay on to take care of urgent tasks, he is himself blocking certain urgent measures, said Šušteršič, who will stay on in caretaker role until a successor is appointed.

Explaining that the Finance Ministry had begun in January preparations for a new US dollar-denominated bond issue to provide for the financing of the national budget beyond June, Šušteršič said the prime minister had ordered a halt to the activities.

Moreover, he said that a proposal to name executive directors of the bad bank, "three experts who would provide for an effective and professional leadership of the bank", was also not placed on the cabinet's agenda.

Šušteršič reiterated that it was only right that ministers from the Citizens' List (DL) resign in the wake of the party's withdrawal from the coalition. But he added that it would make sense that, with DL's withdrawal, all those who were appointed to office on the basis of the coalition agreement also resigned.

He also assessed that it would be extremely difficult to build a new majority in parliament at the current time. "This would entail us working with a party that also faces a major problem with the anti-graft commission's report and has merely decided to sweep this under the rug," Šušteršič said.

The comments are a reference to the opposition Positive Slovenia, whose leader Zoran Jankovič has refused to step down as party leader and Ljubljana mayor in the wake of the graft report, but has suspended his leadership role pending the next PS congress.

Asked by reporters after the session whether Janković's outright resignation as PS leader would remove barriers for cooperation between DL and PS, Šušteršič responded that Janković "has a few positions from which he can resign. He should not be sparing with his resignations."

Moreover, Šušteršič said that the DL and fellow junior coalition partners, the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and People's Party (SLS), should jointly form a new strategy and discuss possibilities for a new government.

Šušteršič, who announced he would not be seeking unemployment benefits for former ministers, told the press he would now send his "resume to a few addresses". If this does not succeed, he will contact the Employment Service "to see what rights an unemployed person has".

Meanwhile, Šušteršič also commented on some high-profile resignations in the DL in the wake of its withdrawal from the government. He said he was not disappointed with the decisions by Tomaž Štih to step down as programming director or Finance Ministry State Secretary Dejan Krušec's announcement that he was leaving the party, adding that he understands both.

"Perhaps we were not smart enough to find a middle-of-the-road solution, or there may not have been possibilities for this," he added.