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Iceland’s president has called on the centre-left Social Democratic Alliance (SDA), junior partner in the government that collapsed on Monday, to form a new minority administration with opposition parties.

President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said yesterday he had asked SDA leader Ingibjorg Gisladottir, foreign minister under outgoing prime minister Geir Haarde, to put together an administration to keep the country running until early elections in May. The government fell after months of public protest over the country’s economic meltdown, sparked by the collapse of the debt-burdened banking system in October.