Mohamed Ghannouchi has announced the new "national unity government", with several key posts kept by the old guard.
Mohamed Ghannouchi, the Tunisian prime minister, has announced that the former defence, foreign, interior and finance ministers will keep their key posts in the new national unity government formed after the toppling of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as president.
But the announcement of the new interim government on Monday stated that a number of opposition members will also be assigned to ministerial posts.
So far, opposition member Najib Chebbi has been named as minister of regional development while opposition leaders Ahmed Ibrahim and Mustafa ben Jaafar have also been given ministerial posts.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Ghannouchi's office in Tunis, said that a list of the new cabinet ministers has been released and that a senior diplomat told him that the new government consisted of "quite a lot of the old guard and not so much of the new".
Bays said that there was a considerable amount of anger among the Tunisian press as Ghannouchi, Ben Ali's right-hand man in the Constitutional Democratic Rally (CRD), refused to answer questions after issuing the statement on the new government.
In the hours preceding the announcement of the new government, Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from the capital Tunis, said that protesters are "rejecting the possibility that any incoming or caretaker or national unity government could possibly have figures or leaders from the previous regime".
They want the RCD party completely abolished, completely removed from any form of government".
Our correspondent added that protesters"want to see some of their representatives really take over some of these key positions."Read More
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