AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdallah yesterday issued a decree approving a major reshuffle of Prime Minister Nader Dahabi’s Cabinet, according to a royal court statement.

Jordan’s prime minister appointed new finance, foreign and interior ministers to give himself more scope to tackle social and economic problems, sources said. The changes were aimed at giving greater cohesion to the Cabinet, appointed in November 2007 with a mandate to accelerate economic reforms.

Officials said they were prompted by domestic considerations and were not expected to affect foreign policy.

Pro-reformist Labor Minister Bassem Al-Salem, who has strong business credentials, was appointed finance minister, replacing Hamad Kassasbeh and sending a strong signal to Jordan’s donors and the International Monetary Fund of its commitment to free market reforms.

Pro-Western reformist Foreign Minister Salah Al-Basheer, who has been a target of criticism by conservatives, was replaced by Nasser Joudeh, a veteran information minister and government spokesman.

Nabil Sharif, who was editor of Al-Dustour Arabic-language newspaper, takes over from Joudeh at the Information Ministry and also replaces him as government spokesman. Mussa Maaitah, a left-leaning political activist, joined the government for the first time by becoming minister of political development, a move indicating that the government was bent on pushing through political reforms, including drafting a new election law.

The new interior minister, Nayef Al-Qadi, succeeds Eid Al-Fayez, who had antagonized civil rights campaigners and the Islamist opposition by using heavy-handed police tactics to clamp down on dissent during parliamentary elections in 2007.

However, the country’s largest political party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), called for the total departure of Dahabi’s Cabinet saying it had failed to achieve its objectives, including the establishment of dialogue with Islamists and other opposition groupings.

Officials say the reshuffled Cabinet will strengthen Dahabi’s drive to rejuvenate the economy. His government faces an uphill task to ease the effects of the financial crisis on Jordan’s aid-dependent economy.

The stagnation of the economy has been aggravated by the country’s ties to Gulf states, where growth has been sharply cut after steep falls in oil revenues. Officials have privately trimmed growth forecasts to about 3 percent, compared with earlier predictions of more than 5 percent for 2009.

The long-awaited reshuffle became more urgent after the resignation last September of reform adviser, Basem Awadallah, whose free market policies had challenged the establishment. The conservatives had accused Awadallah of seeking to set up a shadow administration that interfered with the day-to-day functioning of the government. The new 27-member line-up, sworn in by Abdallah yesterday, includes a total of 10 new ministers.

That fact that the Cabinet had retained its technocratic composition was likely to play well in Washington, political analysts said. Jordan is among the closest allies of the United States in the region.

Jordan will retain its commitment to Middle East peace, which is guided by the king. Most power rests with the monarch, who appoints governments, approves legislation and can dissolve Parliament.

— With input from agencies