Ljubljana  - Most Slovenes skipped a referendum on breaking the small Alpine nation into 13 regions, results showed Monday, handing Prime Minister Janez Jansa's centre-right government a setback.

Jansa, who heads Slovenia's six-month presidency of the European Union ending June 30, pushed for the vote as he struggles to bolster his standing ahead of September 21 parliamentary elections.

But only some 11 per cent of 1.7 million eligible voters cast ballots on Sunday. Of those, 57 per cent backed the plan to create 13 administrative regions.

Jansa argues that the proposal, opposed by his centre-left foes, would help reduce differences in prosperity between the country's richer and poorer regions.

Critics said it creates costly new bureaucracy, too many regions for a country of 2 million and an unclear division of powers between regional and central authorities.

Still, Jansa said he would shortly present legislation to set up regions, saying the government was constitutionally bound by the referendum result, not the turnout.

"We cannot ignore more than 180,000 votes," he said. (dpa)