Libyan government to be named in days: Jibril

NEW YORK: Libya's first formal government since the fall of Moamer Qadhafi will be named within 10 days, interim prime minister Mahmud Jibril said Tuesday.

Ministries could be based in the capital Tripoli and the former rebel bastion of Benghazi in the east, Jibril said at a Group of Eight foreign ministers conference in New York on helping countries coming out of the Arab Spring protests.

"I expect the government to be announced within a week, 10 days maximum from now," said the number two official in the National Transitional Council, the rebel body whose forces ousted Qadhafi.

"Most of the work has been done. It is a question of the number of ministries and the location of the ministries."

He said they could all be in the capital, Tripoli, but it was possible they could be divided between between the east and west of Libya.

The transitional council was based in Benghazi in the east of the country. Tripoli is in the west.

"For a country which was absent from any democratic process for 42 years from any institutions, from any democratic culture, what's taking place is natural," said Jibril.

"I think we better have good consultation, we had better talk before we act.

"I think this government, when formed, will help tremendously to bring about stability and order in Tripoli and the rest of the country.

Therefore I am not bothered by the time we are consuming to bring about some sort of national consensus behind this government."

Libya has been added to the list of Arab countries that have seen political revolutions or deep change that will benefit from a G8 arrangement set up by France, which holds the G8 presidency this year.

The so-called Deauville Partnership will inject about 80 billion dollars and international expertise into the new democracies, though as a relatively wealthy country Libya will not be getting the financial aid.

The cash will be concentrated on Tunisia and Egypt, with some help going to Morocco and Jordan to help the countries with economic development, education and training, rule of law and political reforms.

"We have got to help the countries that are now free," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told a press conference after the meeting.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr said "an extraordinary and exceptional moment needs extraordinary and exceptional ways to deal with it."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011