Latvia's parliament will decide on the candidacy of Artis Pabriks as the country's new foreign minister in an extraordinary meeting next week.

Pabriks's candidacy was presented by his conservative People's party on Friday after the incumbent minister, Rihards Piks, was elected to the European Parliament last month. He will give up his position on July 20.

The extraordinary meeting is likely to take place on Wednesday.

Pabriks told AFP that Latvia's "foreign policy should be more active," as Latvia is now a full member of the European Union and NATO. "We should not knock on doors any more, we are already in, therefore we should be more active," he said.

Pabriks, 38, ran for national elections in November 2002 but only got a seat in parliament last March after a government reshuffle.

Since then he has been appointed parliamentary secretary of the Latvian foreign ministry and chairman of the parliament's foreign committee.

However it was not immediately clear if he will find enough support in next week's parliament meeting as opposition parties have said they will vote against him.

The three governing parties -- the People's party, the Greens and the Farmers union as well as Latvia's First party have only 47 seats in the 100-member assembly.

But Prime Minister Indulis Emsis told reporters he was convinced enough lawmakers would support Pabriks.

A well-known political scientist in Latvia, Pabriks has a degree in political sciences which he studied in Latvia and Denmark.

Along with Latvian, his mother tongue, he speaks Russian, English and German and has some Danish language knowledge.