Egypt cabinet reshuffle still not final: agency

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's cabinet said on Monday that details published about a cabinet reshuffle were premature and were based on predictions, after reports indicated that opponents of the former president had been offered portfolios.

News reports had detailed a list of changes for several posts, although the key portfolios of foreign, finance, interior, justice and defense were not listed in the reshuffle.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most organized political group which was banned from forming a party under Mubarak, said it was not invited to join the cabinet and dismissed the reported reshuffle saying all Mubarak's ministers must go.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq "is continuing his consultations today to select a number of new ministers in the ministerial reshuffle," the state news agency reported.

It quoted cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady as saying news published about the reshuffle was based on "predictions."

He could not immediately be reached for comment.

The reports of the reshuffle had come on official media and it was not clear why the government appeared to be backtracking, but the authorities have been struggling to contain public anger against those seen as remnants of Mubarak's old guard.

Mubarak had reshuffled his cabinet shortly after protests erupted on January 25 in a bid to assuage anger against his 30-year rule, but rage continued to build until his ouster on February 11.

"No one offered us any post and had they done so, we would have refused because we request what the public demands that this government quit as it is part of the former regime," said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood.

"We want a new technocratic government that has no connection with the old era," he told Reuters.

NEW FACES

The reports said the latest reshuffle brought into the cabinet some new faces including three from registered political parties, a staggering change in Egypt where just four weeks ago opposition groups were harried, fragmented and repressed.

Yehia el-Gamal was appointed deputy prime minister, state media reported. He is a professor of law and a leader in activist Mohamed ElBaradei's coalition of opposition groups called the National Association for Change.

Mounir Abdel Nour, secretary-general of the Wafd party, a decades old liberal, nationalist party, became tourism minister, according to the reports.

Wafd boycotted the November parliamentary elections because, like many others in the opposition, it said the vote was rigged. However, many opponents of Mubarak had also said the Wafd party had often been close to Mubarak's government.

Gowdat Abdel-Khaleq, from the opposition Tagammu party, became minister of social solidarity and social justice, state-owned al-Gomhuria newspaper reported.

In other changes, the post of information minister was scrapped. The former minister, Anas el-Fekky, had drawn the wrath of protesters because state media had played down or ignored protests for much of the 18-day revolt.

Amr Hamzawy, a political analyst and member of the so-called council of "Wise Men" which sought to mediate a resolution during the uprising, became minister for youth, state television reported.

Reports also said Mohamed El Sawy, who runs a popular cultural center in Cairo, was appointed culture minister, and Georgette Kalini, a parliamentary deputy, was named immigration minister.

Ahmed Gamal el-Din was named minister of education and higher education, and Omar Salama was named as scientific research minister, the reports added.

(Reporting by Yasmine Saleh, Writing by Edmund Blair, editing by Peter Millership)