“The detailed measures will be decided in time for the 2012 budget, and will come into force on January 1, 2013,” the leader of the Free Democratic Party told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

But Rösler said he could not be specific on the scale of the cuts until economic prognoses and tax income estimates for the coming year were available. “Only then can we be serious,” he said.

Rösler also denied rumours that he has a bad relationship with Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble from the government’s senior coalition partner the Christian Democratic Union. “Wolfgang Schäuble and I get on well. We have reconciled ourselves,” he said.

As if to demonstrate the strength of Germany’s ruling coalition, Rösler repeated the government’s line on eurobonds, a measure currently being proposed to help the European Union out of its debt crisis. “I rule out that there will be eurobonds with this government,” he said. “That would dramatically threaten our growth in Germany.”

He also said his party took some of the credit for reinforcing the government’s tough stance on eurobonds. “We have just prevented the introduction of eurobonds, which would have cost us dear,” he told the paper. “When it comes down to it, the people can count on the FDP.”

DAPD/bk