She said that the coalition partners had agreed even before the government was appointed that they would start the sales procedures for one or two major state-owned companies as soon as possible. Talks on the details of this process are still under way.

The PM would like one of these two companies to be a bank, as this would send a positive signal to the financial markets, according to her.

Meanwhile, the government will take more time to draw up a comprehensive classification of all state investment, she said.

Regarding the holding act, the PM said that apart from the tweak endorsed yesterday placing the holding and affiliated companies under the oversight of the Court of Audit, other changes are also planned.

In line with an agreement among coalition partners, the act - confirmed today to be fast-tracked at the parliament's April plenary - will be further amended to allow for the state state to remain the owner of assets which will only be managed by the holding.

Under the act passed under the previous government the holding would be the owner of the assets.

Bratušek also said today that the cabinet had gotten acquainted with the details of this year's budget yesterday and that the situation was "far from good".

"The budget (passed under the previous government) is not realistic and we were warning about that during its passage at the National Assembly," she said, adding that her team would now try to solve the problems it had inherited from its predecessors.

According to the latest data from the Finance Ministry, budget deficit topped EUR 487m by the end of February, which is almost a half of what had been planned for the entire year, she stressed.

A supplementary budget will therefore most likely be needed, according to her. On the one hand savings will be needed and on the other some taxes will probably have to raised.

While arguing that no tax rise can have a positive effect on the economy, she said that economists agreed that the least harmful was a VAT rise.

Commenting on yesterday's decision of deputy groups to postpone any decisions on amending the Constitution with the balanced-budget rule to May, the PM said today she was happy with the arrangement and that in the meantime she would go through the calculations based on which 2015 had been set as the year in which the fiscal rule is to be implemented.

She said she had also held a meeting with former PM Janez Janša before going to Brussels on Tuesday to weigh the possibilities for inclusion of the fiscal rule into the Constitution.

"We talked about the chances for reaching the agreement that was later achieved," she said.

Bratušek labelled the talks she held with all the representatives of the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday as constructive and reiterated that Slovenia would continue on the path of reforms.

She said the EU officials had shown understanding for the country's delay in the drawing up of its stability and national reform programmes. The government will endorse them by 9 May and then send them to Brussels immediately, she asserted.

Bratušek also confirmed that Slovenia was not on the agenda of today's meeting of the Eurogroup finance ministers in Dublin, a statement made by Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem this morning.

"But the fact is that several bilateral or multilateral meetings are held on such occasions. There is nothing unusual about that."

This evening Finance Minister Uroš Čufer is scheduled to meet top officials of the Eurogroup, European Central Bank (ECB), European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Commission. Prior to that he will also take part in informal meeting of the Eurogroup and all EU finance ministers.

"Since Finance Minister Uroš Čufer is new to the group it is only right that he is meeting as many people as possible and discussing as many topics as possible," Bratušek said.