Libya's main ruling assembly on Wednesday appointed intelligence chief Moussa Koussa, the country's most influential official after leader Muammar Gaddafi, as foreign minister in a reshuffle.

Koussa replaces Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam, according to an official statement.

The General People Congress (GPC), the equivalent of a parliament, kept Ali Al-Mahmoudi as prime minister. Other positions were scrapped or merged to trim bureaucracy.

Abdulhafid Zlitni, who held the economic planning portfolio, becomes planning and finance minister. He also is chairman of the Libyan Investment Authority, which manages the OPEC member's sovereign wealth fund of $69 billion.

Mohammed Ali al-Houeij, finance minister in the government line-up, was named minister of industries, economy and trade. Koussa has spent his career in the shadows in foreign intelligence for most of Gaddafi's 40-year-old rule. He warded off several attempts by dissidents, most of them based abroad, to try to topple or assassinate Gaddafi.


Reuters