Texting scandal forces Finland foreign minister out

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's foreign minister was sacked on Tuesday after newspapers and magazines published suggestive text messages he sent to an erotic dancer, his party said.

Ilkka Kanerva sent about 200 text messages to Johanna Tukiainen, 29-year-old leader of the Scandinavian Dolls erotic dance troupe. At first he said they were related to her performing at his 60th birthday party.

He later admitted the messages were not totally appropriate, but insisted until Monday he had done nothing wrong and was ready to continue in office, but his conservative National Coalition Party said he could not continue in his job.

The conservatives said they had picked Alexander Stubb, a member of the European Parliament, as the new foreign minister.

A government spokeswoman said Stubb would be confirmed in the job by Finland's president on Friday.

"This has been the toughest decision as the leader of the party. Ilkka is my friend and he has done his job as foreign minister brilliantly," party head Jyrki Katainen said, adding that Kanerva had acted thoughtlessly in his private life.

"Kanerva has shown a great lack of judgment ... he doesn't enjoy the full trust which a minister needs."

Stubb is to replace Kanerva also as Chairman-in-Office for Europe's largest democracy forum, the 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation In Europe (OSCE).

In messages Kanerva had asked Tukiainen, who has posed nude in magazines: "Would you like to do it in an exotic place? Where could it be?"

"How it would be to touch you with fingers in a night club?" said another message sent the same night after 1 a.m.

This is not the first time Kanerva has been in trouble over his mobile phone use. In 2005, when he was the deputy speaker of parliament, he bombarded two models with text messages.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Charles Dick)