Estonian government to nominate former PM Kallas for EU post: report

Estonian Prime Minister Juhan Parts is to nominate former prime minister Siim Kallas as his choice to become a European commissioner, the Postimees newspaper reported Wednesday.

The daily said Parts had his coalition government's tacit approval for the nomination and could make an announcement as early as Thursday.

It said that European Commission President Romano Prodi, who works out the line-up of the EU executive with EU member states, had approved the nomination in a telephone conversation on Monday.

Government spokeswoman Hanna Hinrikus declined to confirm the report, saying the issue was not on the agenda of Thursday's cabinet memeting.

Estonia is one of 10 mainly ex-communist bloc countries on course to join the European Union on May 1.

Parts replaced Kallas, leader of the liberal Reform Party, as prime minister after last March's elections.

Kallas, who launched the Baltic country's currency after it regained its independence from Moscow in 1991, was finance minister before becoming prime minister, and also served as foreign minister.