s are now locked in negotiations on forming a government of their own. The former communist party SDĽ and the Hungarian party SMK said after a meeting they remained intent on trying to form a government with the other main opposition parties - the SDK and the SOP. "SDL and SMK remain committed to their statement from the democratic round table of September 27 which reads `SDK, SDL, SMK and SOP expressed their will to create...a new Slovak government for the next four years`," the two parties said in a joint statement. Diplomats privately said before the election that a Hungarian presence in the government would be taken as a positive signal of change from any new Slovak administration.