Former king to be Bulgaria PM

Restoring the monarchy is not on the former king's agenda

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Former King Simeon II has been named Bulgaria's next prime minister.

Simeon, whose centre-right National Movement won a landslide victory in June elections, will form a new government within 10 days, party leaders announced on Thursday.

"With great emotion but with my typical sense of responsibility, and having in mind the trust that the voters gave me on June 17, I accept this proposal," Simeon said.

Crowned king during World War II, he was forced to flee the communists aged nine.

He returned from exile three months ago to form his party, which promised to end poverty, unemployment and other problems that plagued the country after the fall of communism.

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The first former East European monarch to return to power, Simeon says he has no plans to restore the monarchy.

AUDIO Journalist Vessela Sergeva: Former King Simeon plans to carry out reforms 0.58 MB / 53.591 sec AIFF or WAV sound

The party's leader in parliament, Plamen Panayotov, announced that Simeon's party had unanimously approved his candidacy for prime minister on June 23, but kept the decision secret until Thursday.

Panayotov announced Simeon's appointment after a meeting with Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov.

Stoyanov said he would give Simeon a mandate to form a new government on Sunday, and the new prime minister will have another week to come up with a new cabinet.

Simeon's party holds 120 seats in the 240-seat chamber -- one seat short of a simple majority.

He was crowned king of Bulgaria at the age of six in 1943 after the sudden death of his father, but lost his throne in a 1946 referendum widely believed to have been rigged by the communists. He fled to Egypt with his mother.