Budapest  - Hungarian-born billionaire financier George Soros said he was "sincerely sorry" over a share deal for which his New York-based fund management company was fined over two million dollars for breaking Hungarian regulations.

"The case is especially upsetting to me because of my close personal attachment to Hungary," Soros said in a statement sent to the Hungarian news agency MTI late Thursday evening.

Budapest - Gyorgy Suranyi said on Thursday that he should not be considered a candidate for Hungary's prime minister.

In an interview in Brussels, the 55-year-old region head of Italian banking group Intesa SanPaolo told the Hungarian daily newspaper Nepszabadsag that it was clear he did not have the backing of all political parties.

Budapest - Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom on Wednesday joined the call for early general elections in Hungary.

The EU country has been in a state of political turmoil since Saturday, when Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announced he would stand down to make way for a new government.

Solyom told state television on Wednesday that only early elections can bring about a stable Hungarian government with the necessary power to act.

Budapest  - Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announced on Tuesday evening that the Socialist Party leadership had drawn up a shortlist of three potential candidates for his replacement.

He named the banker and former finance minister Gyorgy Suranyi, the historian and former head of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Ferenc Glatz, and Andras Vertes, head of the economic research

institute GKI.

"The MSZP leadership recommends that official consultations should begin with and about these three candidates," Gyurcsany said.

Budapest  - Hungary was awash on Tuesday with speculation over who will fill Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's shoes if, as promised, he departs on April 14.

Gyurcsany announced on Saturday that he would step down to allow a new leader with broader popular and political support to tackle Hungary's ever deeper financial crisis.

His governing Socialist party continued talks with its former coalition partner, the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats, and also met the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum.