The incorporation of saturated N-heterocyclic carbenes into palladium pre-catalysts give high catalyst activity in the Suzuki coupling of deactivated aryl chloride substrates. [GRS] The complexes were generated in the presence of Pd(OAc)(2) by in situ deprotonation of bis(imidazolinium) bromides LHX (3) which were characterized by conventional spectroscopic methods and elemental analyses.