Updated Saturday morning - adds comment by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando

Parliament is to debate a confidence motion in the government on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said  that he had presented the motion to the Speaker after the vote in Parliament where a no confidence motion in Transport Minister Austin Gatt was defeated after the Speaker's casting vote.

Dr Gatt said the country needed stability and in such troubled times.

The government, he said, would see the bus service reform through, but it also needed to focus on the economic issues in the context of the economic troubles in Europe.

When asked about the vote of confidence, Franco Debono, the Nationalist MP who abstained in the no-confidence motion in Dr Gatt, said this was something which he himself had proposed in the PN executive, and he would vote in favour of the government.  

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando wrote on his facebook page that he would back the government.

"I will obviously be supporting government. I was given a mandate to do so for the full term by my constituents. Reason also dictates that instability will harm our nation," Dr Pullicino Orlando said.

AUSTIN GATT SATISFIED

In a brief comment after his no-confidence vote, Transport Minister Austin Gatt said he was satisfied with the outcome.

PM SHOULD DO WHAT HE THINKS IS RIGHT FOR THE COUNTRY - MUSCAT

Opposition leader Joseph Muscat said the Prime Minister should reflect on the vote and do what he thinks is right not for his party but for the country.