SANAA, 1 April 2007 — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh asked Electricity Minister Ali Mujawar yesterday to form a new Cabinet in a major reshuffle that would include key portfolios, government sources said.

Mujawar would replace Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal in the country’s second government shake-up in 14 months.

The official Saba news agency said Saleh had issued a presidential decree appointing the prime minister and that the new Cabinet would be announced later this week. A presidential aide said the changes would affect key Cabinet ministers and that “new faces would make their debut with the government.”

Observers said the reshuffle, which comes six months after Saleh’s re-election for a new seven-year term, was in response to pressure on him by donor countries to introduce reforms. Analysts said Saleh took this step to show donors, such as the World Bank, that he was serious about political and economic reforms.

“Forming a new government is necessary to bear the tasks of bolstering positive results in the aspects of development and investment,” Saleh said in a message to the outgoing prime minister. “While implementing what came in my political program during the elections, what comes first is our people’s living conditions, battling poverty, corruption and eliminating the unemployment rate,” he said.

Ba-Jammal’s Cabinet underwent a major reshuffle in February 2006, when Saleh appointed 15 new ministers, most of whom were described as technocrats, to replace long-serving veterans in the 35-member Cabinet. Ba-Jammal is also secretary-general of Saleh’s ruling People’s General Congress. Party officials said he would continue in that post.