Libyan leader: no government reshuffle ahead of elections

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The head of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said on Sunday he did not envisage a government reshuffle before national elections slated for June, despite reports of possible changes earlier this month.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil told reporters there was "motivation" for changes in the government, but said a reshuffle was impractical because it would affect the timing of the planned parliamentary election.

"In my opinion there will be no change in the government and we will push through," he said. "A new government will need two weeks to pick names, another two weeks for it to take office and this is all valuable time taken away from the Libyan people."

The NTC was reviewing the work of some of the government's ministers, an NTC spokesman said last week, with a view to possibly replacing some of them. Last November, Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib was brought in to deal with the tricky task of managing the country's transition from civil war to democracy.

He chose a new cabinet which began to integrate former rebel fighters into a new national army and to build new government institutions from scratch.

(Reporting and writing By Hadeel Al-Shalchi; Editing by Andrew Osborn)