CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb appointed veteran banker Ashraf Salman as investment minister on Monday in a cabinet reshuffle that also replaced ministers for foreign affairs and international cooperation.
Former ambassador to Washington Sameh Shukri was named foreign minister while Naglaa El Ahwany, a university professor who last served as the head of Mehleb's office, was appointed minister for international cooperation, the state-run news website al-Ahram said.
The full cabinet list posted by Al-Ahram showed most other ministers are holdovers from the previous 31-member cabinet, including the ministers for finance, planning, oil, electricity, supplies and communications.
The defence and interior ministers are also staying on.
The decision to appoint a separate investment minister reverses a decision this year to merge the ministry with that of industry and trade, a move that could help new President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attract foreign funds back to stimulate an economy racked by years of political turmoil.
Keeping the cabinet largely intact could allow Sisi to implement quickly the types of reform urged by the United Arab Emirates, which along with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait gave billions of dollars in aid after Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was ousted by the army last July.
The new cabinet includes Mahfouz Sabr as minister of justice, a dossier with scores of cases against supporters of Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood.
More than a thousand alleged Brotherhood supporters were sentenced to death this year for charges related to violence that followed the army's ousting of Mursi following mass protests against his rule.
Three Al Jazeera journalists have been on trial for months in a separate case on charges of supporting the Brotherhood, which the state designated a "terrorist organisation".
Mehleb appointed Laila Iskander, formerly a minister for environmental affairs, to the new position of minister for slums. Millions of poor Egyptians in Cairo and other cities live in informal settlements that lack basic infrastructure.
Sisi reappointed Mehleb as premier last week, but the formation of the new government was delayed on Sunday after candidates turned down offers for the ministries of investment, justice, culture and information.
Since the 2011 overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, several people have rejected cabinet jobs for fear of opening themselves to potential legal complaints after a number of former ministers were charged with corruption or taking decisions which were not in the national interest.
Cabinet spokesman Hossam El-Kawish said the ministers would be sworn in on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
