**King Albert II of Belgium has asked a minister to facilitate talks on ending a crisis which brought down the ruling coalition government this week.**Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders was charged by the king with “ensuring conditions are met for the rapid resumption of negotiations”.
Talks will focus on electoral boundaries around the capital Brussels.
A liberal Flemish party, Open VLD, quit the government in protest at its failure to resolve a dispute there.
Prime Minister Yves Leterme offered his resignation as a result. But the king is hopeful that a deal can still be reached to revive the coalition, which is just five months old, and has not accepted Mr Leterme’s resignation.
‘Bye-Bye Belgium’
It is the third time Mr Leterme has offered his resignation to the king since July 2008.
Differences between the Dutch-speaking Flemish majority and French-speaking Walloon minority threaten governments perrenially, but commentators say the current crisis is particularly acute.
“Bye-Bye Belgium” was the headline in the francophone newspaper La Derniere Heure while Le Soir asked: “Does this country still make sense?”
The dispute concerns communities on the outskirts of Brussels which have been trying to maintain their Flemish identity by blocking French-speakers from moving in, and by trying to remove their special voting rights.
Economists are concerned that political paralysis may harm efforts to reduce the country’s debt to below 100% of gross domestic product.
In addition, Belgium is due to take over the six-month presidency of the European Union in the July.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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