Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Friday announced a major cabinet reshuffle, following local elections in March that saw his Islamist-rooted party lose support despite its victory.
Erdogan said President Abdullah Gul had approved the new cabinet before he read out the list to reporters.
A major change was the appointment of Ahmet Davutoglu, Erdogan's chief foreign policy advisor, as foreign minister, replacing Ali Babacan, who became deputy prime minister responsible for the economy.
Davutoglu's appointment marks a rare phenomenon in Turkish politics: an official joining the cabinet without being a parliament member.
Though he has avoided the limelight, Davutoglu, 50, has been highly influential in shaping the foreign policy vision of the Justice and Development Party, seeking a pivotal role for Turkey in regional affairs.
The former academic is known notably for heading the Turkish delegation that shuttled between Israel and the radical Palestinian movement Hamas in January as part of international efforts for a ceasefire.
"Professor Davutoglu has been involved in intensive diplomatic activity... and I believe his experience makes him a valuable person for this job," Erdogan said.
He also explained that Babacan would now be responsible for all economic and financial institutions as well as state banks, stressing the need "for a management by a single hand" in times of economic difficulty.
The cabinet reshuffle had been expected since local elections on March 29, in which the AKP won an easy victory but saw its popularity shrink for the first time since it came to power in 2002.
The AKP, which has won all four elections in the past seven years, got 38.9 percent of the vote, almost eight points less than its previous electoral showing in 2007.
The outcome was widely seen as a warning to the government to focus on the economy and compromise with secularist opponents, who accuse the AKP of undermining the Muslim-majority country's secular principles.
The reshuffle comes also amid the bruising effects of global financial turmoil on the Turkish economy, which shrank 6.2 percent in the last quarter of 2008, sending unemployment up to a record 15.5 percent in January.
In another significant change, former parliament speaker Bulent Arinc, who has often angered secularists with comments deemed as targeting Turkey's secular system, became the second of the three deputy prime ministers.
Eight ministers, including those of justice, finance, energy and education, lost their posts, while 10 -- among them the ministers of the interior and defence -- retained their offices.
A second woman, Selma Aliye Kavaf, joined the cabinet as a state minister after Nimet Cubukcu, the outgoing state minister responsible for the family who was promoted to the education ministry.
The new cabinet has 27 members, including Erdogan, one more than the outgoing one, reported AP.
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