Jordan PM Revamps Cabinet In Broad Reshuffle

Most power in Jordan rests with the king, who appoints governments, approves legislation and can dissolve parliament.

Jordan's prime minister announced a cabinet reshuffle on Monday in which he changed the foreign, interior and finance posts to give himself more scope to tackle social and economic problems, officials said.

The reshuffle was aimed at promoting greater cohesion among premier Nader Dahabi's cabinet, appointed in November 2007 with a mandate to accelerate economic reforms.

A senior government aide said a new cabinet would be sworn in by King Abdullah on Monday. The new ministerial line-up will bring 10 new ministers into a 27-member cabinet.

Officials said the changes were prompted by domestic considerations and were not expected to affect foreign policy. Jordan will retain its commitment to Middle East peace, which is guided by the king.

The long-awaited reshuffle became more urgent after the resignation last September of the monarch's closest reform adviser, Basem Awadallah, whose Western-style free market policies had challenged the conservative establishment.

The conservatives had accused Awadallah, a confidant of the monarch, of seeking to give the monarchy wider powers by setting up a shadow administration that interfered with the day-to-day functioning of government.

Pro-Western reformist foreign minister Salah al-Basheer, who was a target of the conservatives, was replaced by Nasser Joudeh, a veteran information minister and government spokesman.

The government appointed a new interior minister, Nayef al-Qadi, to replace Eid al-Fayez, who had antagonised Jordanian civil rights proponents and the Islamist opposition by using heavy-handed police tactics to clamp down on dissent during parliamentary elections in 2007.

The Islamists, opponents of Israel and U.S. policy in the Middle East, want an end to restrictions on political activity and say civil rights have been suppressed ever since Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

That the cabinet retains its technocratic composition is likely to play well in Washington. Jordan is among Washington's closest regional allies.

Officials say the reshuffled cabinet will strengthen Dahabi's drive to rejuvenate the economy as it becomes more exposed to the worsening global economic outlook.

Most power in Jordan rests with the king, who appoints governments, approves legislation and can dissolve parliament.