REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- An Icelandic political party says it will name an openly gay government minister to the post of interim prime minister.

The country's Social Democratic Alliance Party has picked Johanna Sigurdardottir, 66, to be prime minister in the wake of this week's collapse of Iceland's ruling conservative coalition, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday.


Currently Iceland's social affairs minister, Sigurdardottir, described as a former flight attendant who rose through the political ranks, could confirmed as early as this week by Iceland's new ruling coalition of the Alliance Party and the Left-Green movement, the newspaper said.

"She is a senior parliamentarian, she is respected and loved by all of Iceland," Environment Minister Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir, a fellow Alliance Party member, told the British newspaper.

Sigurdardottir will face a massive job of rebuilding Iceland's economy, which has been battered the collapse of three major banks saddled by huge debt loads. The bank failures triggered a plunge in Iceland's currency, inflation and rising unemployment.