FACTBOX-Key figures in Belgium's interim government

BRUSSELS, Dec 21 - King Albert reappointed Guy Verhofstadt as prime minister on Friday to head an interim government charged with trying to bridge Belgium's ever-widening linguistic divide.

The following are snapshots of leading members of the new cabinet.

GUY VERHOFSTADT, PRIME MINISTER

Verhofstadt, 54, was in power for more than eight years as the head of a coalition of socialists and liberals. He acknowledged defeat after voters punished his Flemish Liberal Party in a June national election.

His popularity grew among both French and Dutch speakers during Belgium's political crisis since June and he is now considered as the only unifying political figure in the linguistically divided country.

Verhofstadt, an EU enthusiast, was asked by the king to form a government as a last resort to end six months of deadlock in coalition talks.

YVES LETERME, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, BUDGET

Flemish Christian-Democrat leader Leterme, 47, was hailed as the main victor in the June election with a mandate from Flemish voters to win more powers for the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, of which he had been premier.

He failed twice to form a coalition with French-speaking parties that fiercely opposed his plans for greater devolution.

He is set to take over from Verhofstadt to form a permanent government by Easter and is likely to bring in his party's small separatist allies, the NVA.

Leterme straddles the linguistic divide in having a Flemish mother and Walloon father and supporting French-speaking soccer club Standard Liege despite considering himself Flemish.

His numerous gaffes have not warmed him to French speakers, such as telling French newspaper Liberation in August 2006 they were either too lazy or not intelligent enough to learn Dutch.

DIDIER REYNDERS, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, FINANCE

Reynders's French-speaking Liberal Party overtook the arch-rival socialists as the biggest force in Wallonia after the June election and he immediately said he did not want them as coalition partners.

Tense relations with the socialists and the French-speaking equivalents of the Christian Democrats are partly because they have local governments in Brussels and Wallonia.

Reynders, 49, an admirer of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, served as finance minister in the first two Verhofstadt governments between 1999 and 2007.