A top representative of the Democratic Party-PD, a senior group of the governing coalition in Bucharest, said on Monday that alliance leaders are yet to come to a conclusion on the 2007 draft budget. PD vice-president Adriean Videanu said that talks between his party and the Liberal coalition partners would continue late on Monday night.

According to Videanu, all ministers have presented their demands and projects but a political decision is still expected on how state resources would be delivered.

He said that despite prolonged talks the 2007 budget had “all the premises” to meet the promises of the governing coalition for the coming period.

And he said the education, health and pensions systems were a priority for the new budget, as well as infrastructure, which will be “correlated with European funds that we have to access”.