A parliamentary vote of no-confidence against 

"It is reasonable that confidence in Laila Freivalds, who carries the greatest responsibility at the foreign ministry, is put to the test before parliament," head of the Center Party's parliamentary group Aasa Torstensson said in an interview with Swedish public radio.

Last Thursday, a government-appointed "catastrophe commission" lambasted Sweden's government for "lacking organization to handle serious crises" such as the December 26 Asian tsunami catastrophe, which left 543 Swedes dead.

As many as 20,000 Swedes were vacationing in Southeast Asia at the time of the Indian Ocean tsunami, most of them in Thailand.

In the report, Prime Minister Goeran Persson was found to have the ultimate responsibility for his administration's shortcomings, but Freivalds received the harshest criticism.

The report was followed by calls from the public, media and politicians for the foreign minister, and to a lesser extent the prime minister, to resign.

The Center Party said on Thursday that it would try to push through a vote before Christmas.

The party, with its 22 members of parliament, will need support from 13 other MPs before it can push through a motion of no confidence, and at least 175 of Sweden's 349 MPs will have to vote against Freivalds if she is to be forced to resign.

Meanwhile the Greens, the ruling Social Democrats' traditional allies, have said they would back the no confidence vote against Freivalds if nothing new comes out of parliamentary hearings into the government handling of the crisis, which are set to wrap up early next year.

The Greens have also rejected Persson's claim that any motion of no confidence should be directed at him alone, insisting that he should not shield his ministers.

Sweden's minority Social Democratic government holds 144 seats in parliament, and can usually count on its allies to bring its total backing to 189 seats.

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