MADRID — Spain's king began talks with political party leaders on Tuesday on forming a new government as acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez lacked crucial support from Catalan separatists.

After he wraps up the round of talks on Wednesday, King Felipe V is expected to call on the candidate with the best chance of winning a vote of confidence in parliament to form a new government.

In all likelihood that will be Sanchez.

His Socialists won the most seats but were weakened in a repeat Nov. 10 general election that saw the far-right party Vox surge to third, and he has struggled since then to secure a working majority in 350-seat lower house of parliament.

Two days after the election, the Socialists who won 120 seats, three fewer than in polls in April, signed an agreement with the hard-left party Podemos, which won 35 seats, to form a coalition government in what would be the first such power-sharing deal in Spain's modern history.

But to achieve an absolute majority of 176 seats required to win a confidence vote, Sanchez still needs the support of several smaller parties including Catalan separatists ERC, which won 13 seats in last month's polls, Spain's fourth general election in four years.

After holding talks Tuesday in Barcelona, the Socialists and the ERC said in a joint statement that they had made "advances" although the Catalan party stressed that an agreement to back Sanchez was not imminent.

"We don't think the investiture (of Pedro Sanchez) could take place before Christmas," ERC spokeswoman Marta Vilalta told reporters.

The ERC wants to discuss the possibility of holding a legally binding independence referendum in Catalonia, which Spain's central government steadfastly refuses.

The wealthy northeastern region was rocked by protests, some of which turned violent, after Spain's Supreme Court in October sentenced nine Catalan separatist leaders to lengthy prison for their role in a failed 2017 independence bid.

During the coming weeks Catalonia's separatist regional government, which controls the prisons where the Catalan leaders are being held, could grant them day parole, setting the stage for a clash with Sanchez's caretaker government.

Public prosecutors will likely challenge any move to ease the Catalan leaders' prison terms in the courts. — AFP