Tallinn - Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip named new members of his cabinet Wednesday as he seeks to shore up his minority government.

Ansip appointed Jurgen Ligi from his own Reform party as the new Finance Minister, while the Interior Ministry portfolio will be taken by Marko Pomerants from coalition partners the Pro Patria/Res Publica Union.

Other ministers had been overseeing the work of the ministries since May 21 when Ansip announced that he was ejecting the Social Democrat party from his three-party coalition, which has been in power since April 2007.

The Social Democrats disagreed with Ansip over the need for reforms to employment law as the government seeks to impose severe curbs on spending.

Ansip had attempted to woo the opposition People's Union party into government but talks collapsed late Monday night, forcing him to continue with a minority administration that controls 50 of the Estonian parliament's 101 seats.

Without a working majority, the government will have a tough time passing unpopular austerity measures that it says are needed to get Estonia out of a severe recession and into the eurozone.

Voters frustrated with weeks of political bickering are now likely to show their anger at the polls during this European parliamentary elections on June 7.

However, there was some good news for the government Wednesday when a demonstration staged by unions protesting about changes to employment law attracted fewer participants than organisers had hoped.

Ansip told union members Wednesday that employment laws drafted during Estonia's decade-long boom were no longer appropriate in the midst of a deep recession.

"Today we are in a situation where there is not enough money for these levels of compensation," he said.

Estonia became the first country in the European Union to slip into recession in 2008. (dpa)