Bulgaria Premier Names New Mostly-Socialist Cabinet : Balkans: Hopes for a coalition government fade as the opposition front rejects coaxing.

Amid deteriorating economic conditions that include worsening shortages of consumer goods and fuel, Bulgaria’s Socialist prime minister announced a new government Wednesday.

The Cabinet nominated by Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov includes only one non-Socialist, although the list was not complete. The remaining ministers are expected to be named when the National Assembly votes today on the government, Lukanov’s second in seven months.

Although the Socialists--formerly the Communists who ruled Bulgaria for decades--won multi-party elections in June, the nation has been without an effective government. Despite extended effort, the Socialists have been unable to coax leading opposition groups of the United Democratic Front into a coalition government, a deadlock that some analysts say led to paralysis.

In an interview Wednesday, Lukanov said: “I am still not happy about not being able to form a multi-party government because I think that’s what Bulgaria needs most. But Bulgaria needs a government because the present situation can have unpredictable consequences and can deeply hurt Bulgaria and its standing in the world.”

Since the election, the first free vote in four decades, the Socialists have come under increasing attack as key food and other items have vanished from shops and as oil shortages have disrupted daily life.

Last week, the authorities announced that white and yellow cheese, an important food item here, will be rationed for the foreseeable future, and intermittent power blackouts hit some parts of Sofia, underscoring a fuel crisis that the government predicts will worsen in the coming months.

Motorists here are already waiting in lines up to three miles long and for up to 36 hours to fill up their cars with gasoline.

The fuel crunch comes from a double blow: the sudden jolt to world oil prices triggered by the crisis in the Persian Gulf and the decision by the Soviet Union to demand hard currency for continued supplies of petroleum products to its Eastern European allies.

On Wednesday, Lukanov said he plans to organize a national program to mobilize local sources of energy, including coal and wood, to help make up the shortfalls. He also appealed to the West for aid, noting that Bulgaria has strictly observed U.N.-imposed sanctions against Iraq, which have contributed to his nation’s shortfall.

The cash-strapped Bulgarian government has already suspended payments on its $10.3-billion foreign debt and has also appealed to the Soviet Union for economic aid to help get the country through the winter.

“I don’t think there will be famine in the real sense of the word,” President Zhelyu Zhelev said recently, “but poverty is a fact.”

Authorities say they hope to avoid meat rationing for at least the next two months, but the recent long lines outside meat markets reflect the already short supplies of beef and pork. Most shoppers were lining up to buy large quantities of a cheap sausage.

Consumer complaints are directed at a variety of targets. Some shoppers blame farmers for withholding goods from the capital; some attack poor market organization, and most level their anger at the Socialist government for failing to get a grip on the economy.

In addition to cheese and meat, Sofia residents say sugar, detergent, toilet paper and children’s clothes are difficult to find.

Perhaps most troubling to most consumers is the warning by the government that electricity will be rationed to homes and industry this winter. Electrical energy to industry will be cut by an estimated 10% to 20%.

In his proposed Cabinet, Lukanov dropped Defense Minister Dobri Dzhurov, who had been in office for 28 years, and replaced him with Yordan Mutafchiev. But there were few new names in the list. All are former Communists except for Science Minister Ilya Konev, who is not a national figure and has no known affiliation.