Arafat to announce new government

JERUSALEM: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat vowed to have a new government within 10 days during a meeting of the Palestinian leadership in his Ramallah headquarters, cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said on Tuesday.


"The cabinet should change within a week, at latest in 10 days," he said.


The move, decided on at a Monday night meeting, would aim at streamlining the government as well as making its ministries more efficient and frugal, the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam said.


Twenty ministerial portfolios was deemed "an appropriate number" during the meeting, the paper said.


It was also proposed that "various political factions" participate in the new government as well as non-political figures, so as to "bring in new blood and vitality in governmental work and extend its popular base," the daily added.


Arafat also said the Palestinian Authority's various security services would be reorganised, without indicating any specific date, according to the report.