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Finland's prime minister resigns
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has resigned, ending seven years of government marked by sound policies but tinged with scandal, making way for the Nordic country's second woman premier, Mari Kiviniemi
"The president has accepted the government's resignation and asked it to continue on a caretaker basis until the new government has been formed and the ministers appointed," President Tarja Halonen's office said in a statement.
Vanhanen and his four-party, centre-right coalition government are expected to continue work until next Tuesday, when parliament elects a new prime minister.
Halonen will then relieve the old government of its duties and appoint a new one, almost certainly led by Mari Kiviniemi, Finland's 41-year-old public administration and local government minister, who was voted the new head of Vanhanen's Centre Party at its congress last weekend.
The government parties are due to meet Friday and Saturday to prepare a new programme, and some ministerial changes are foreseen, at least to replace Kiviniemi if she becomes premier as expected.
Finland's first woman premier Anneli Jaeaetteenmaeki, also of the Centre Party, was in office for barely two months in 2003 before being replaced by Vanhanen following a political scandal.
The government's leading Centre Party hopes Kiviniemi's scandal-free image will help renew the battered party ahead of next year's elections and turn around a slide in ratings to secure a place in government beyond 2011.
