Belgium's media named Saturday the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Herman Van Rompuy, as favourite to become prime minister after the collapse of Yves Leterme's government.
It appears the outgoing government "must be brought back under the leadership of Herman Van Rompuy," the French-language "Free Belgium" newspaper reported.
Former premier Wilfried Martens has been tasked with ending a deadlock in talks on restoring Belgium's political order after Leterme's government collapsed under accusations of seeking to influence a court ruling linked to the break-up of banking giant Fortis.
Martens met the king again on Saturday afternoon, a palace statement said.
The palace specified that Martens had only provided "an intermediary second report" on who should succeed Leterme, saying his "final" report would follow shortly.
The media reports also said the next government would include previous coalition partners and ministers, except Leterme and Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen who resigned on December 19.
The two men are likely to be replaced by other members of their Flemish Christian Democrat party (CDV), including Van Rompuy despite his protestations that he is not interested in the position.
The early frontrunner to replace Leterme, Jean-Luc Dehaene, who twice served as premier, was ruled out because he reportedly "posed too many conditions," the Evening newspaper said.
"In the last few hours," it is "once again Herman Van Rompuy who is on the inside track," it added.
But Belgium's media has also not ruled out the possibility of CDV leader, Marianne Thyssen, becoming the next prime minister.
