Key Ministers Keep Jobs In Kazakhstan's New Cabinet

Kazakh Prime Minister Akhmetov (file photo) (official site) 19 January 2006 -- Kazakhstan's defense, interior and foreign affairs ministers will retain their places in the country's new government, the office of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev's office has indicated.

Parliament on 18 January backed Nazarbaev's proposal to keep Daniyal Akhmetov as prime minister. Akhmetov has headed the government since 2003.

The president's press office said on 19 January that Nazarbaev has reappointed 12 of the 16 cabinet ministers.

Defense Minister Mukhtar Altynbaev, Interior Minister Baurzhan Mukhamejanov and Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev were among the key ministers to retain their portfolios.

The country's energy and mineral resources minister, Vladimir Shkolnik, was replaced by his deputy.

Nazarbaev's chief aide, Karim Masimov, was appointed first deputy prime minister.

Nazarbaev was reelected by a landslide on 4 December 2005 in a vote that was criticized by Western observers and the opposition as flawed.

(AP)