Former FIFA VP Warner is new Trinidad security minister

Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of Works and former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner (R) talks to residents during a walkabout in Victoria Gardens, Diego Martin October 12, 2011.

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, who resigned from soccer's international governing body following a cash-for-votes scandal last year, has been appointed as Trinidad and Tobago's new national security minister.

In a Friday night Cabinet shake-up, the second in two years, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar moved Warner from his post as minister of public works and infrastructure to take over the national security ministry and tackle the country's high crime rate.

Persad-Bissessar said the changes in her government will bring about improved performance in major ministries.

Warner, 68, is chairman of the United National Congress, the major partner in the coalition government.

He replaced retired Brigadier John Sandy, the national security minister who oversaw a state of emergency and curfew in hot spot criminal areas last year in a campaign to reduce murders and other crimes.

Warner was also president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, or CONCACAF, for 21 years and resigned from all his soccer positions in 2011.

He had been suspended by FIFA pending an investigation into a cash-for-votes scandal while Mohammed Bin Hammam of Qatar was campaigning for the FIFA presidency last year. Warner and Hammam were accused of trying to bribe Caribbean soccer officials during a meeting in Trinidad, allegations that both men have repeatedly denied.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Vicki Allen)