Slovenia announced Thursday it would open a tender to sell a luxury government jet that was bought in 2001 to fly high officials around but never used for that purpose. 'We have decided to open a tender to get the best offer,' Defence Minister Ljubica Jelusic said, adding the government expects to receive at least 16.2 million euros (22 million dollars) for its Falcon 2000EX jet. In 2001, Slovenia's late president and prime minister Janez Drnovsek pushed for acquiring the jet -- then worth over 20 million euros -- claiming the government needed its own aircraft rather than renting one each time high officials traveled abroad. Amid strong criticism from the centre-right opposition and media, the government signed a deal to lease the plane long-term to a US company shortly after its delivery to Slovenia. The leasing contract expired in August 2009 and after months of maintenance work in Switzerland, the plane finally returned to Slovenia last month. Slovenia's centre-left government decided earlier this year to sell the aircraft as part of austerity measures to cope with the global economic crisis. Bk/eb 