News Service from House Harris

EUR: Slovenia chooses leftist prime minister

LJUBLJANA, Nov 7 AP - Slovenia's parliament has overwhelmingly selected Borut Pahor as the tiny Alpine country's new prime minister.

Pahor's Social Democrats won the most votes in the September 21 elections and later sealed a coalition deal with three other parties to secure the necessary majority in the 90-seat chamber.

The Friday vote was 59-24. The remaining deputies were absent.

Pahor is pledging to work on further economic progress for Slovenia, a former republic of Yugoslavia that shunned its communist past to become a member of both the European Union and NATO.

The 45-year-old leftist leader replaces Janez Jansa, whose centre-right party now holds about a third of parliament seats in the country of 2 million.

AP jnb=0A