Madrid - Spain's King Juan Carlos on Friday tasked outgoing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero with building his second consecutive government after his Socialist Party won the elections nearly four weeks ago.

Zapatero, 47, is due to present his government programme on Tuesday. His investiture as prime minister is foreseen for Wednesday.

It was thought likely that Zapatero, whose party did not win an absolute majority in the March 9 poll, would be elected with a simple majority on the second round of voting in parliament.

Zapatero does not want to go too far in making concessions to regionalist parties seeking more autonomy for the Basque region or Catalonia, whose votes could allow him to be elected on the first round.

The Catalan formation CiU said Friday it would not vote for Zapatero. (dpa)