Latvia's Green Prime Minister Indulis Emsis proposed on Tuesday parliamentary speaker and party colleague Ingrida Udre to replace former foreign minister Sandra Kalniete as the Baltic country's European Commissioner.

"I used my right to name Ingrida Udre," Emsis told reporters after a meeting with parties in the governing coalition.

The announcement followed a battle within the three-party minority coalition over who should represent Latvia at the executive of the European Union, which it joined on May 1 with nine other countries.

Emsis used his right to choose Latvia's commissioner after the three parties failed to agree on a candidate at a meeting on Tuesday, after several days of talks.

Udre, 45, entered politics in 1998. She entered parliament for the Greens and Farmers party in 2002, being elected parliamentary speaker in the same year.

A coalition partner, the People's Party, had strongly backed Kalniete, 51, who was Latvia's ambassador to France before becoming foreign minister in 2002.

Emsis' move prompted an angry reaction from members of the People's Party, saying it would consider pulling out of the shaky coalition.

"It is a very serious situation and we will consider it," Defence Minister Atis Slakteris of the Peoples Party said.

"We cannot rule out a situation where we could leave the coalition in the future," he said. He said the centre-right party had started negotiations with the biggest opposition party New Era.

Emsis told reporters he doubted the appointment could destabilise government.

"It is not serious to talk now of some coalition partners leaving the coalition," he said.

Short-lived coalition governments are common in Latvia, a Baltic former republic which joined the European Union on May 1 and NATO on March 29.

The EU's 10 new members nominated an interim commissioner to serve in the last few months of life of the current Commission. But since then Latvia has had a change of government. Kalniete, who has no party affiliation, was nominated by the former government of New Era prime minister Einars Repse.

The next commission takes over in November.

Udre speaks Latvian, English and Russian. She has an economics degree and as a student was a passionate basketball player.