Belgium's King Albert consulted political leaders today after the government collapsed for the third time in a year following its botched attempt to bail out financial group Fortis.
Prime minister Yves Leterme tendered his government's resignation on Friday after a report by the Supreme Court found signs of political meddling to sway a court ruling on the future of the bank, a victim of the credit crunch.
The king, who under the constitution must decide whether to accept the resignation, held successive talks at the palace with the heads of the five ruling-coalition parties until 2am, a palace spokesman said.
Consultations were to continue later in the day.
Belgian media said there was little chance of Leterme staying in power.
The newspaper De Morgensaid a reshuffled, emergency cabinet could be stitched together to govern until June. A parliamentary election could take place that month to coincide with planned regional and European elections, the paper said.
"After the resignation of Yves Leterme, the king needs to find a successor quickly. Not one of the ruling parties is asking for new elections," De Standaardsaid on its front page.
Mr Leterme has been in power only for nine months as leader of a fragile, five-party coalition meant to ease a dispute between Belgium's linguistic groups that had reignited speculation the 178-year-old country could break up.
Opposition parties demanded fresh parliamentary elections, although analysts doubted the parties in Leterme's coalition would want to test voters just as Belgium slips into recession, and with the Fortis debacle fresh in their minds.
The government still needs to push through parliament a key deal to boost the economy, which is expected to contract in the fourth quarter.
It also has important legislation on wages awaiting approval and needs to find some way of resolving the saga surrounding Fortis, Belgium's largest private sector employer.
Leterme denied accusations he had sought to influence an appeal court which last week upheld a challenge by shareholders to a state-led carve-up of the bank, but acknowledged that the Supreme Court's findings made his position untenable.
"I trust the parliamentary investigation committee that is to be set up will bring to light the facts as they occurred and establish the truth," he said in a statement on Friday.
Mr Leterme tendered his resignation a first time in July after failing to break a political deadlock among the country's Dutch- and French-speaking groups, but the king refused it that time.
A year ago, the king brought back former premier Guy Verhofstadt to head a caretaker government after Mr Leterme had failed to form a coalition following June elections.
Mr Leterme's government was accused of seeking to influence the verdict of the Brussels appeal court, which last week froze the state-led carve-up of Fortis and part sale to France's BNP Paribas.
Reuters