New Zealand's Prime Minister-elect John Key said on Tuesday that the new cabinet could be announced on Sunday.

After talks with the Maori Party on Tuesday and ahead of further meetings with the Act Party and the United Future Party, Key said it was his intention to finalize deals over the coming days and announce them "at the latter end of the week".

Key indicated he could meet with the Maori Party again on Wednesday about having a role within the National Government as ministers outside of Cabinet.

The Act Party on Monday pledged support on confidence and supply, adding its five votes to National's 59 for a total of 64 in the 122-member Parliament.

National could rule with that alone but Key wants his government to be as broad-based as possible and is bringing in United Future leader Peter Dunne and the Maori Party, which won five seats in the election.

With those three parties signed up, Key would have an overwhelming 70 votes in the Parliament against the combined opposition forces of 52 held by the Labor Party, the Greens and Jim Anderton's Progressive Party.

The crucial element of the support agreements Key is working onis that the minor parties will vote with National on confidence and supply.

Confidence votes demonstrate a government's ability to prove that the Parliament has confidence in it, and apply to budget legislation.

Supply votes are routine and authorize the Treasury to release money for the public service. If a supply vote was lost, the public service would cease functioning and the government would have to resign.

If it lost a confidence vote it would also have to resign, because it would not have been able to pass essential legislation like the budget.

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2008)