G17 Plus Vice President Suzana Grubjesic on March 8 denied that an agreement had been reached to reduce the number of ministries in the government of Serbia.

"I don't know if there have been any talks on reorganizing the government," she told reporters, adding that, if such a discussion had taken place, G17 Plus had not participated in it.

Grubjesic said her party was ready to discuss the issue, but that it would not agree to the elimination of the Ministry for Youth and Sport, which is headed by Snezana Samardzic-Markovic of G17 Plus.

The March 8 issue of the Blic daily reported that the members of the coalition in power had agreed to reduce the number of ministries by five as of October 2010.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dacic, who is also the president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, denied that the leaders of parties in the ruling coalition had discussed a reorganization of the government.