Gonzalez rebuffed

Vitoria (Reuter) - The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) declined to enter a coalition with the minority Socialist government of the Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. The Socialist Party won 159 seats at the 6 June general elections, 17 short of an overall majority. Mr Gonzalez tried to persuade the PNV, with five seats, and the Catalan Nationalists, with 17, to enter into a coalition but both parties have now rejected these overtures.