The government intends to press ahead with its plans to set up a parliamentary committee to examine rules on party funding, despite indications that PASOK and other opposition parties will not take part.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis proposed on Monday that a committee of deputies should look at whether the law on donations to political parties could be made tougher.

Government spokesman Theo-doros Roussopoulos said that the lack of support for the initiative from PASOK and the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) showed that the opposition parties were not serious about tackling corruption.

“They talk about real transparency but they do not pursue it in practice,” he said. “If the opposition is truly interested in strengthening institutional measures then it should participate.”

Roussopoulos said that New Democracy would go ahead and form working groups to examine the issue even if PASOK and SYRIZA refuse to agree to the formation of a committee.

PASOK leader George Papandreou held a meeting yesterday with senior party officials to decide what steps the Socialists should take next as they sense an opportunity to chip away at the government’s popularity, which has been dented following allegations linking Culture Minister Michalis Liapis to the Siemens scandal.

A number of conservative MPs have privately expressed reservations about Liapis’s actions and sources said yesterday that the one ND deputy who spoke out publicly, Petros Tatoulis, could be ejected from the party.

If this were to happen, the ruling conservatives would reinstate Costas Koukodimos, who is currently in self-imposed exile as an independent MP.