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Last week, PM Alenka Bratušek met DeSUS leader Karl Erjavec, whose party held the post of health minister until Tomaž Gantar stepped down over lack of political support for health reform.

While Erjavec said he was happy with the meeting, he refused to reveal any details, saying everything was still possible and hoping a solution would be found this week.

DeSUS seems to be willing to give up the post of health minister, but counts on a new office, most likely the minister for Slovenians abroad.

This is currently held by Tina Komel, an ethnic Italian from the Slovenian coast, who was appointed as part of the PS quota of ministers.

Several media outlets have reported that Metod Dragonja is to become a new economic development and technology minister and Alenka Trop Skaza a new health minister.

Dragonja was economy minister in the late 1990s in the Liberal Democrats-led government of Janez Drnovšek.

While he used to be director general of pharma company Lek before it was taken over by Novartis in the early 2000s, he has most recently served as the head of bank NLB's Moscow office.

Trop Skaza, who heads the epidemiology department at the Celje Health Institute, has meanwhile confirmed her willingness to take over as health minister.

While Erjavec labelled Dragonja a good candidate, he admitted he had never heard about Trop Skaza before.

The PS, on the other hand, neither denied nor confirmed it was in talks with Dragonja and Trop Skaza, nor have its fellow coalition partners - the Social Democrats (SD) and the Citizens's List (DL) - taken a position on them.

This may happen on Tuesday when top members of the ruling coalition hold their regular weekly meeting.

This week will also see top bodies of coalition parties meeting to finalise their positions on the draft coalition agreement until the end of the government's term.