Albert turned down Leterme's resignation, which was first submitted late Monday, after the Flemish Christian Democrat prime minister realized that his five-party coalition government would fail to meet a self-imposed July 15 deadline for reaching a consensus on constitutional reform.
The king received Leterme for official discussions after days of talks with leading politicians about a solution.
He also named three mediators with instructions to find a way out of the crisis: two French-speaking politicians, Francois-Xavier de Donnea and Raymond Langendries, as well as Karl-Heinz Lambertz from German-speaking Belgium.
Albert urged the government to give full support to the reconciliation efforts.
Leterme heads a coalition that has tried to bridge the long-standing language rivalry between the 6.5 million Dutch-speaking Flemish people and the four million French-speaking Walloons.
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The formation in March of the Leterme government, which includes conservatives and liberals of both language groups as well as Francophone socialists, had appeared to resolve a nine-month political crisis -- the longest in the country's history -- following the June 2007 elections.
(Deutsche Welle)
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