Millionaire businessman Calin Tariceanu - Romania's new prime minister

Calin Tariceanu, voted in as Romania's new prime minister in parliament Tuesday, is a right-wing, millionaire businessman who is pushing economic reforms to modernize the former communist state and get it into the European Union.

A trained engineer, Tariceanu, 52, was industry and trade minister from

He proposed a restructuring of the mining industry in line with demands made by international financial organizations, despite concern that it would impose hardships on miners.

As prime minister, Tariceanu, who reportedly has a personal fortune of 15 million dollars, wants to better the business climate in Romania in order to bring in more foreign investment.

He also told parliament in presenting his three-party, centre-right government coalition Tuesday that the time has come for "fighting corruption, guaranteeing freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary."

"Today ends the transition to a market economy and begins the process of modernizing the country, a process closely linked to joining the European Union," said Tariceanu.

Romania is seeking to join the EU in 2007 but must carry out major reforms to fight corruption and guarantee fair trials if it is to succeed.

Tariceanu said another priority "will be lowering taxes and increasing pensions, with a rise of 30 percent by 2008."

Tariceanu is seeking to institute a flat income tax of 16 percent, instead of the current system of three bands rising to 40 percent, and a reduction of the rate of profits tax from 25 percent to 16 percent.

Tariceanu said earlier this week that this must be adopted before the end of this year so that it could take effect from January 1, 2005.

Otherwise the reform would have to wait another year, until January 1, 2006. Such a delay carried the risk "of disillusion for the people who want to see taxes cut quickly", he said.

Tariceanu was appointed after Bucharest Mayor Traian Basescu, like him from the centre-right Justice and Truth alliance (DA), won presidential elections December 12, defeating Ion Iliescu who had ruled Romania as a Social Democrat for 11 of the 15 years since the fall of communism in 1989 with the execution of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Tariceanu turned out to be a good negotiator, forming a coalition with the ethnic Hungarian party and another, smaller grouping in order to forge a parliamentary majority.

Tariceanu is a collector of cars and motorcyles, especially the old Citroen deux-chevaux, which was France's answer to the Volkswagen Beetle for low price and great useability.

This elegant man with a charming smile showed a key to his success when he transformed this hobby into a business. Since 1993, he has been Citroen's import agent in Romania.

Elected vice president of Europe's liberal-democrat party in 2003, Tariceanu speaks fluent French and English.