A meeting to drum up financial support from donor nations to help Guinea-Bissau's government plug its projected budget deficit for this year could take place in Portugal's Lisbon next month, Bissau's prime minister said Friday.

According to a report reaching here on Saturday, Carlos Gomes Junior said the "mini" donor conference would have to take place in the first half of February, between the expected approval of the budget plans by the Bissau parliament and legislative elections in Portugal on Feb. 20.

A full donor conference to gather funds to assist the restoration of full democracy in Guinea after the 2003 army coup that ousted ex-President Kumba Yala has been successively postponed.

This meeting is now due after May presidential elections in Guinea, the last stage in a phased return to constitutional democracy in the wake of the 2003 military uprising.

Gomes Jr. said a mini-donor conference would probably significantly reduce the 61 million euros deficit envisaged for this year in his government's budget proposals, due to be debated in parliament late January.

Source: Xinhua