"This system has created increasing fragmentation, which makes any coalition unwieldy and unmanageable," said Joseph Alpher, a political analyst.

For one thing, he will still be operating in the same unwieldy coalition of his own conservative party and Mr. Murayama's Socialist Party.

Mr. Ahmed, 63, is a former professor who is the leading moderate voice in an unwieldy coalition of six Islamic religious parties that unexpectedly won broad support in elections last week.

Back and forth, they debated names of peers who might find acceptance from the unwieldy coalition, which reached from Communists to conservatives.

Since 1986, the country has been run by an unwieldy coalition of Christian Democrats and Communists, who retitled themselves Democratic Socialists after the fall of the Berlin wall.

Zoran Zivkovic, 42, will preside over the same cabinet, and unwieldy coalition, as his predecessor.

If both these unwieldy coalitions split up Britain would be better.

Because of the unwieldy coalition and his character, his leadership was not strong.

Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's unwieldy coalition, facing increasingly organized opposition from reformers, needed to prove their leader could stand up to Washington.

Voters appeared to be punishing Mrs. Merkel's party, 10 months after it squeaked into power in an unwieldy "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats.