CAIRO - Egyptian leaders agreed on candidates for a new cabinet that is due to be sworn in today to help end the crisis since an uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak last month. Finance Minister Samir Radwan will retain his position, the state-run Middle East News Agency said today, without saying how it got the information. The new government is scheduled to be sworn in before the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which on March 3 asked Prime Minister-designate Essam Sharaf to form a new Cabinet. Former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik resigned following calls by protesters that he leave the Cabinet along with other ministers appointed by Mubarak. The former president was forced from office on Feb. 11 after three decades in power by an uprising inspired by the ouster of Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a month earlier. The new cabinet will also reappoint Hassan Younes to head the ministry of electricity and energy, Fayza Aboulnaga for international cooperation, Fathi El-Baradei for housing, Ibrahim Manaa for civil aviation, Nabil Arabi, foreign affairs and Sayed Mashaal for the ministry of military production, the news agency said. Majed George will remain state minister for environment affairs, Jawda Abdul Khaliq as minister of social solidarity and internal trade, Munir Fakhri Abdelnoor for tourism, Abdallah al- Husseini for religious endowments, Mohsen Al-Nomani for local development, Samir Ali El-Sayyad for industry and foreign trade, Atef Abdelhamid for transport, Majid Othman for communications and information technology, and Hussein Mustapha for irrigation and water resources, it said. The other appointments, according to the news agency, are Mohamad Abdul Aziz al-Jundi, justice; Imad Abu Ghazi, culture; Ahmad al-Burhi, labor; Sharif Ismail, petroleum; and Ayman Farid Abu Hadid, agriculture. The designation of Sharaf, a former transportation minister, has been welcomed by many protesters and opposition figures. Shafik, a former air force general, was named prime minister by Mubarak in January in an attempt to placate protesters. Egypt's stock market will open after a new cabinet is formed, Khaled Seyam, head of the bourse, told Al Jazeera television two days ago. The bourse has been closed since Jan. 27 after the benchmark EGX 30 Index fell 16 percent amid the uprising. Protesters and security forces clashed this weekend. Tanks were sent to guard Cairo's state security building in the southern city of Asyoot after demonstrators stormed the headquarters March 4, saying its main purpose is to spy on dissidents, Al Arabiya TV reported. Security forces also fought demonstrators near a state security building in Alexandria on March 4, killing one person and injuring four, Al Arabiya said, citing a witness.
