Economic reform plan awaited as Algerian Prime Minister named

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika named a former finance minister yesterday to head a new government that would implement…

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika named a former finance minister yesterday to head a new government that would implement promised economic reforms and pull the country out of eight years of violence.

The state-run Algerian APS news agency said Mr Bouteflika had asked Mr Ahmed Benbitour (53), a presidential aide and prominent technocrat, to form the new coalition.

The new Premier has no party affiliation. But the key finance, foreign and interior ministries were expected to stay with Bouteflika loyalists, according to press reports.

The new Cabinet would include some notable political figures, the Es Sahafa newspaper reported. They included former premiers Mr Ahmed Ouyahia and Mr Redha Malek; former counter-espionage chief Mr Yazid Zerhouni; and Mr Mohamed Bedjaoui, a judge at the International Court of Justice.

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Officials and politicians familiar with talks over the new cabinet said the President would fill key ministerial posts from outside the five political parties expected to join the government.

Mr Bouteflika, who had repeatedly delayed the formation of the government since his election last April, earlier yesterday accepted the resignation of the government of the prime minister, Mr Smail Hamdani, soon after he approved the budget for 2000.

One official said he expected Mr Chakib Khalil, a former World Bank expert, to replace veteran OPEC figure Mr Youssef Yousfi as mining and energy minister.

Officials and politicians said they expected the ruling National Democratic Rally (RND) to be the biggest loser as at least two new parties join the line-up.

The RND controlled 14 portfolios in the outgoing government, with the National Liberation Front (FLN) and the Islamist-oriented Movement for Peaceful Society (MPS) each having seven posts.

Politicians said the fiercely anti-Islamist Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), which had boycotted the previous government, would have two ministerial posts in the new cabinet.

Mr Bouteflika has repeatedly said the delay was because he was looking for able people who would implement his promised economic and social reforms.

He says his top priority is to end the violence which erupted in 1992 after the army-led authority scrapped a general election in which radical Islamists had a commanding lead.