Brian Cowen facing early election as Greens quit Irish coalition

Ireland's Green Party yesterday withdrew from the government, raising pressure on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to resign from office and for the country to hold a national election sooner than 11 March as planned.

Green leader John Gormley said his small party - critical for the survival of Mr Cowen's coalition government - would immediately join the opposition.

Mr Gormley stressed that his MPs would support the last essential deficit-fighting measure facing a parliamentary vote, the finance bill, but then would require an election date be set for February.

"The Irish people want to see political certainty, economic certainty, and they do want an election," said Mr Gormley, whose party joined the government in 2007. "The Irish people have begun to lose confidence in politics and in the political process. The Irish people expect and deserve better."

Ireland's coalition government has been heading for collapse since November, when Mr Cowen was forced to negotiate a ?€67.5 billion loan agreement with the European Union and International Monetary Fund to prevent national bankruptcy.

The Greens announced at that time they would leave the government, sinking it, as soon as all legislation linked to the bail-out was passed. They and opposition parties have grown frustrated at Mr Cowen's slow roll-out of the finance bill, which will aggressively raise income taxes to combat Ireland's massive deficit.

"Our patience has reached an end," said Mr Gormley, who called on Mr Cowen's Fianna Fail party to agree to accelerate passage of the finance bill as the government's dying act.

Mr Cowen ruled out resigning as prime minister before that legislation becomes law.

"It's important that we get the finance bill through, and we need a government to do that," said Mr Cowen, who did resign on Saturday as leader of Fianna Fail. The party, which has won the most seats in every election since 1932, is expected this time to suffer a crushing defeat.

Yesterday's Green withdrawal means Mr Cowen lost two more cabinet ministers, environment minister Mr Gormley and communications minister Eamon Ryan.He now has only seven of 15 cabinet ministers - the bare minimum permitted under Ireland's constitution - following his disastrous management of an attempted cabinet reshuffle last week.

The two major opposition parties, Fine Gael and Labour, are threatening to force a no confidence vote in parliament this week against Mr Cowen unless he promises to get the finance bill passed by Friday.

Labour - which currently has a no-confidence motion listed for debate ?tomorrow - said it had no intention of backing down unless Mr Cowen commits to dissolving the parliament for an election by Friday.

"We think it is eminently feasible to conclude the finance bill by the end of the week. I don't see us moving from that," senior Labour MP Pat Rabbitte said.

"Fianna Fail will have to stop procrastinating and say, 'It's over'. We don't want another weekend of this uncertainty," Mr Rabbitte said. "We need to let battle be joined, let the people decide, and let a government that has the prospect of four or five years in office be elected."

Mr Gormley appealed to Fine Gael and Labour to hold fire until the finance bill is passed by the fastest responsible means possible.

The loss of support from six Green MPs means Mr Cowen can no longer muster a parliamentary majority. If he lost a confidence vote, he would be obliged to resign immediately and dissolve parliament for an election campaign that would last three to four weeks.