Hamid Karzai to announce new cabinet is announced in parliament on Saturday

Afghan president Hamid Karzai is likely to keep his top technocrat ministers when his new cabinet is announced in parliament on Saturday, but some diplomats say the lineup shows Karzai is just recycling old names.                                           

The new cabinet, leaked by parliamentary officials to media on Friday, will be announced in parliament at approximately 11 am (0630 GMT), a month after Karzai was inaugurated following  his re-election was confirmed in an August poll marred by fraud.

"The new cabinet will be introduced by Karzai's first deputy Qasim Fahim to the lower house of the parliament today," said Hasib Noori, a senior media officer at the parliament.
The lineup must be debated by parliament and endorsed by lawmakers before it becomes official.                                           

Karzai is under intense pressure by Western leaders who have troops fighting a growing insurgency in Afghanistan to show he is serious about clamping down on corruption. They see the new cabinet as Karzai's first vital test of his commitment to fighting graft.                                           

"We're awaiting an official announcement and want to see the nominations put forward reflect President Karzai's stated commitment to good governance and integrity and professionalism within his cabinet," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Kabul.                                                                                   

Main ministers to stay                                           
A list obtained by Reuters showed almost half the ministers will be replaced or reshuffled, but for the most part they will not be the cabinet's top figures. The cabinet does not include any opposition figures.                                           

All three security offices, including the head of the National Directorate of Security, which handles intelligence, will remain the same, at a crucial time when thousands of new police and army recruits are being trained up and deployed.                                           

Defence minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, who US defense secretary Robert Gates has praised, will remain.                                            The interior and finance ministers will also stay, as had been expected. Both are technocrats liked by Washington.                                           

Officials said another in that category, foreign minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, would stay in his post only until a London conference on Afghanistan in January. They did not give a reason why he would leave after that.                                           

Some Western diplomats said the retention of top ministers reflected the difficulty Karzai faces in recruiting people who are qualified to take on big portfolios. "It's recycling ministers from the last five years, there's hardly a sign of a renewed commitment to tackle some of the major challenges this country faces ...  but the reality is the pool from which the president has to choose from is extremely limited," said a Western diplomat who declined to be identified.                                           

Western leaders who have troops in Afghanistan and are pumping millions of dollars of aid into the
war-ravaged country are keen to see Karzai make widespread reforms to improve the way funds are spent and contracts are tendered.                                           

Ministries such as education, health and agriculture, which absorb the most foreign money, are not seen changing. Washington and its allies may be disappointed to see Ismael Khan, a once powerful guerrilla leader viewed by critics as a warlord and throwback to Afghanistan's violent mujahideen war, keeping his energy post.                                           

But a strong plus for the West may be the appointment of the outgoing commerce minister, Wahidullah Shahrani, to take on the mines portfolio, a sector that has the potential to earn Afghanistan significant revenue in the future.                                           

During his tenure at the commerce ministry, Shahrani adopted a vigorous privatisation campaign and has doggedly rooted out corruption. He fired corrupt people working in his ministry as well as 180 people at the government-owned petroleum enterprise, including the director-general, whom he has described as "one of the most corrupt individuals in the country".                                           

The list seen by Reuters suggests Karzai has refrained from giving top jobs to the most powerful former warlords, with the exception of Khan, who threw their weight behind his election campaign. But they could yet make gains when deputy ministerial appointments or governorships are decided.