Norway's caretaker centre-right government quit on Friday after issuing a 2006 draft budget with a record surplus swollen by booming oil prices for the world's number three exporter.
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik handed his resignation to King Harald, paving the way for Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg, 46, to take over on Monday at the head of a left-of-centre alliance, which won a September 10 election.
"The Norwegian economy is solid," outgoing Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss told parliament in the government's last act, saying the incoming government had a "fantastic starting point." Labour won the election by pledging more spending on welfare, ending the outgoing government's tax cuts.
The draft budget projects a surplus of 305 billion crowns ($46.8 billion) for next year against 256 billion for 2005 and an underlying 2006 deficit, before the gap is plugged by surplus oil revenues, of 65.9 billion.
The new government will heavily rewrite the draft in coming weeks to start meeting promises to do more to share out Norway's wealth. Labour and its allies, the Socialist Left and Centre Parties, have spent a month working out a common platform.
The outgoing government says the opposition has made budget-breaking spending promises that threaten to upset economic growth and could drive up central bank interest rates, now at a low 2.0 percent. In the budget, the Finance Ministry lowered its forecast for 2006 oil and gas output by 6 percent. The top exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, Norway would pump 3.0 million barrels of oil, including natural gas liquids in 2006, flat from 2005.
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