After 15 months of talks, Belgium set for coalition

Belgium's squabbling political parties may finally be able to form a new government 15 months after a parliamentary election, they said today.

The country holds the record for the length of time a nation has been without a government.
Leaders from eight parties announced today that they had reached an agreement over electoral boundaries, an issue that has divided French- and Dutch-speaking politicians in Belguim for 10 years.

"This is the greatest stumbling block in Belgian politics and the eight parties have finally succeeded in clearing it," said Alexander De Croo, chief of the Flemish Liberals, who had brought down the previous government over
the issue.

"Everything is now in place to start real coalition talks." Flemish parties want more powers to be devolved from the federal government to regional authorities and to cut funding for Wallonia, the poorer French-speaking south.

Belgium is administered by a caretaker government headed by Yves Leterme, who said on Tuesday that he would leave by the end of the year to take on a post at the OECD.

King Albert II, who flew back early from a holiday in France this week, has asked French-speaking socialist Elio Di Rupo to form a government but that is likely to take several more weeks.

Belgium has a deficit equivalent to 96  per cent of its annual output and as there is no fully fledged government to carry out structural reforms, Standard & Poor's and Fitch have threatened to cut its credit rating.