VIENNA (Reuters) -Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will take over as caretaker chancellor on Friday from Karl Nehammer, who quit when centrist coalition talks collapsed last weekend, President Alexander Van der Bellen's office said on Wednesday.

If Kickl — who is expected to cozy up to the Kremlin and pursue hard-line policies in areas like migration — successfully forms a government he would become Austria’s new chancellor and the country’s first far-right leader since the end of World War II.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg is to serve as interim chancellor until a new government is formed, the office of President Alexander van der Bellen announced on Wednesday. Schallenberg is to lead the current coalition between the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the Greens until a new government is formed.

Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Monda