Thai interim PM announces 26-member cabinet

Thailand, Oct 9: Thailand's new interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont announced his cabinet, which was approved by the country's revered king.

The 26-member cabinet announced late last night has two deputy prime ministers including central bank governor Pridiyathorn Devakula who is also the finance minister in the interim, post-coup government. Only two members of the interim government are either retired or serving armed forces' personnel, besides the interim Prime Minister.

The cabinet is expected to have a one-year life before elections are held under a new constitution.

The former army chief installed Mr Kosit Panpiemras, the top executive at Bangkok Bank, Thailand's largest financial institution, as industry minister.

Mr Krirkkrai Jirapaet, a former ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, became commerce minister and Mr Nitya Pibulsonggram, ex-ambassador to Washington and lead negotiator in stalled free trade talks with the United States, was named foreign minister.

Mr Piyasvasti Amranand, chairman of Thailand's largest asset management firm, takes over the Energy Ministry, where he had served as a career bureaucrat for many years.

In the first public comments from a minister, Piyasvasti signalled an intention by the new government to focus on rebuilding social harmony after the turbulence of the coup.

It would shelve contentious issues such as the flotation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the state power producer, which helped fuel a Bangkok street campaign against Mr Thaksin Shinawatra.

''This government won't have time to work on the privatisation of EGAT,'' he told a Bangkok radio station.

UNI