BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi named a slimmed down 31-member cabinet on Monday in an effort to rejuvenate a government crippled by infighting and threatened by powerful Islamists.
But two-thirds of the ministers named had been part of the 42-strong cabinet dissolved on August 7 by President Abdullahi Yusuf, who called it ineffective and bloated.
No Islamists were appointed, despite the urgings of some legislators who felt their inclusion may help the government broker a political compromise with the biggest threat to its narrow authority.
The Islamists had no immediate public reaction to the line-up, which was supposed to have been finished a week ago.
"The appointment of the new cabinet is up to the government, and does not concern us," Islamist spokesman Sheikh Abdirahim Ali Mudey said.
The announcement was made after Gedi consulted Yusuf, parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, lawmakers and traditional elders, government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told a news conference in the government's temporary base, Baidoa.
The new line-up meets the clan power-sharing formula prescribed for the government when it was created at peace talks in Kenya in 2004.
But parliament must approve the smaller cabinet and some lawmakers said the legislature may be Gedi's biggest challenge.
The reshuffle was part of a deal brokered by government ally Ethiopia, after Gedi barely survived a no-confidence vote on July 30 and saw half the cabinet resign in frustration over his reluctance to negotiate with the Islamists.
NEW BLOOD
Many of those who resigned were re-appointed or given new ministries in the interim government, the 14th shot at bringing central rule to a country in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Diplomats said the new members appeared to be more qualified to get things done within government, if not with the Islamists.
"There are no obvious allies of the Islamists. But most people seem to think the new people are more qualified," said a European diplomat, who declined to be identified.
The Islamists emerged in June as a new political and military force after defeating U.S.-backed warlords and seizing control of Mogadishu and strategic areas around it.
The government and the Islamists had been due for a second round of Arab-League brokered peace talks, but they were again delayed last week after the Islamists asked for more time.
Many diplomats believe they are using the delay to tighten their grip on Somalia and prepare for possible clashes with the government and Ethiopian troops there to protect an administration with no real army of its own.
The Islamists' hardline leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, has refused to talk to the government until Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia leave.
Addis Ababa has consistently denied sending troops into Somalia, but has not hesitated to do so in the past. Residents this weekend reported new sightings of Ethiopian soldiers in Baidoa.
(Additional reporting by Bryson Hull in Nairobi and Mohamed Ali Bile in Mogadishu)
By Hassan Yare