The incoming government of President-elect Lee Myung-bak will close the Unification Ministry and four other ministries as part of its drive for a "small and efficient" government, Lee's transition team said Wednesday.

The decision to shut down the Unification Ministry is in line with the conservative president-elect's pledges to restrict the incoming government's relations with North Korea unless the communist North abandons its nuclear arsenal. Six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions are deadlocked over the North's refusal to present a complete list of its nuclear programs.

However, the prospects for parliamentary approval of Lee's organizational reform bill are uncertain, as the 138-seat pro-government United New Democratic Party (UNDP), which is capable of mustering a majority of 150 seats in the National Assembly in conjunction with minor liberal parties, opposes the closure of the Unification Ministry.

The UNDP insists the Unification Ministry is indispensable to Seoul's engagement policy with Pyongyang. Lee's GNP controls 128 seats.

The four others to be closed or merged are the maritime affairs, information-communication, gender equality and science-technology ministries, the transition team's chief, Lee Kyung-sook, said in a news conference.

Under the proposed restructuring of government organizations, the 18 ministries would be reduced to 13. The incoming government plans to appoint two ministers without portfolio, who will be in charge of political affairs, to meet a constitutional requirement for a minimum of 15 Cabinet ministers.

With the UNDP also opposed to the closure of the four ministries, some political pundits forecast that the Unification Ministry may remain intact, if Lee's side uses the controversial ministry's fate as a bargaining chip in subsequent talks with the liberal political parties over the proposed reform blueprint.

The transition team delivered the overhaul blueprint to major political parties, including the UNDP and the conservative Grand National Party (GNP), prior to its official presentation to the Assembly next week.

The restructuring plan calls for the Foreign Ministry to absorb the Unification Ministry, as well as the merger of the Ministry of Planning and Budget with the Ministry of Finance and Economy. It also envisages a merger of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The Ministry of Information and Communication and the Ministry of Science and Technology are to be absorbed by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Education, respectively.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is to be merged with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The Government Information Agency will be closed and merged with the Ministry of Culture.

Lee's incoming administration also plans to downsize the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae and the prime ministerial office by consolidating Cheong Wa Dae's four minister-level posts into one and reducing its staff by 20 percent.

"The downsizing blueprint calls for shutting five ministries, two ministry-level offices, one administrative office and five state commissions. In terms of the number of ministries and offices, Lee's incoming administration will be the smallest since 1969," said Lee Kyung-sook, chairwoman of the presidential transition team.

"Nearly 7,000 positions, which account for 5.3 percent of the total and include 11 ministerial posts and eight vice ministerial posts, will be eliminated. But despite the downsizing, the soon-to-be displaced officials will be guaranteed their status as government employees," said the chairwoman in the press conference.

She stressed the streamlining reform would be an inevitable means of enabling the nation to leap into the ranks of the world's best countries.

"Our government has thus far heavily intervened in the private sector and suppressed its autonomy and creativity. There is an acute need to overhaul the governmental system from scratch.

Regulations that are not in line with global standards and the trend of the times must be abolished," she said.

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap)