国际英语新闻:Austria big parties agree on grand coalition

VIENNA, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPOe) and the People's Party of Austria (OeVP) on Thursday reached an agreement to form a "grand coalition" government.

Werner Faymann, leader of SPOe and Austrian Chancellor, and Vice-Chancellor Michael Spindelegger from OeVP jointly announced the agreement without going into details.

Faymann expressed his confidence that Austria would remain an example in Europe for economic strength and social security with the coalition pact.

One of the goals is to increase the actual retirement age by 1.6 years in the next five years, according to Faymann.

Faymann and Spindelegger will now go to the respective party committees to get approval for the coalition pact.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer will be officially informed of the agreement on Friday. The coalition pact is not to be unveiled to the public until later that day.