Far-right and left-wingers may join forces against state sell-off.

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Sweden’s Finance Minister Anders Borg plans to sell state-owned equity assets and several state-held companies as soon as stock market conditions are favourable, in a move to reduce public debt.

But now the splintered opposition looks set to unite to block the centre-right minority government's plans.

The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats say they will back a bill launched by the Social Democrats and Greens to curtail the sell-off drive of holdings in mortgage lender SBAB, utility Vattenfall the Post Office and telecom operator TeliaSonera.

"We will almost certainly support the line of the Social Democrats and the Greens," Sweden Democrat spokesman William Hahne told AFP.

In order for the bill to pass, it will need support by the Left Party, which broadly opposes privatisation.

When Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's coalition government first came to power in 2006, it received parliamentary backing for its plans and has already sold Absolut Vodka maker Vin & Sprit, a chunk of telecoms giant TeliaSonera, its share in the Nordic and Baltic stock exchange operator OMX and part of the postal service, among others.

However, Fredrik Reinfeldt’s four-party coalition of the centre-right was narrowly re-elected in September, but fell short of a majority. Anti-immigration Sweden Democrats entered parliament for the first time, creating a hung parliament.

Before winning re-election last September, the government reiterated its intention to let go of part or all of TeliaSonera, Nordea bank and mortgage lender SBAB. It has said energy company Vattenfall and its share of Scandinavian airline SAS could also soon go on the block.

In October Anders Borg said that a partial sale of TeliaSonera, SBAB and the region’s largest bank Nordea would yield around 25 billion kronor ($3.7 billion) a year for the next four years.

If the opposition parties join forces they can block the planned sales.

The motion will likely go to a vote sometime in March and Hahne of the Sweden Democrats said the party's mind was almost made up.

"We are among other things against having Swedish energy production interests fall under the influence of foreign power games," he explained.

"The state should control the very important infrastructure, like for instance water (hydro) power," he added.

According to Swedish public radio, the formerly communist Left Party also supports the motion to block the sales.

Financial Markets Minister Peter Norman blasted the planned opposition motion.

"It is unfortunate ... The plan was to try to raise 100 billion kronor (11 billion euros, $15 billion) for state coffers by selling shares of (Nordea, TeliaSonera and SBAB)," he said.

"That would entail reducing our public deficit by the same amount," he said.

"We clearly saw amid the financial problems last year that countries with high public deficits can be in a lot of trouble, so this is unfortunate for both Sweden and the tax payers," he said.