Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev would not rule out the possibility of snap elections for Parliament on the eve of talks concerning the Cabinet re-shuffle.

"If a cabinet does not have clear political support, it is natural for the country to held early elections and this is what we will find out next week,” Stanishev told a news conference on April 17, as quoted by Focus news agency.

Stanishev said that the three ruling parties was going to start negotiations on the Cabinet re-shuffle later in the day. The re-shuffle is expected to become a fact by Orthodox Christian Easter (April 28).

He demanded change on April 11, when the Cabinet survived a no-confidence vote tabled by Parliament opposition on the grounds of the Government's alleged ties with organised crime.

The motion was easily shut down by two of the ruling parties - Stanishev's Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The third partner in the coalition, National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) abstained from voting.

The vote led to the resignation of Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and to Stanishev asking NMSP to give its clear political support to the Government it is a part of. Given NMSP's low public approval ratings, which for now show it would not make into the next legislature, Stanishev's words are a not-so-veiled threat against his wayward coalition partner.

Bulgarian media have speculated that should the three parties fail to reach agreement on the re-shuffle, Stanishev would rather head for snap elections than see out his term as a lame duck, even though BSP is unlikely to lose power if polls are held in the near future.

The next regular general elections are due in the summer of 2009.