Yemen opposition chief Mohammed Basindawa was tasked on Sunday with forming a new government to rule until the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, set for February.
"Mohammed Salem Basindawa was charged to form a national reconciliation government," the decree said, which according to state-run Saba news agency was issued by Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, to whom Saleh transferred power under a Gulf deal signed on Wednesday.
Basindawa, a former member of Saleh's ruling party, was picked on Friday by the opposition to head an eventual unity government. Born in Aden, the capital of former South Yemen, Basindawa quit Saleh's General People's Congress a decade ago, becoming an opponent but without joining a party.
The former foreign minister now has two weeks to form a unity government in which Saleh loyalists and opposition figures are to share key posts until February when Saleh is due to leave power and early elections held.
Saleh, 69, has ruled Yemen for 33 years and signed a deal brokered by the Gulf states in which he agreed to step down in return for immunity from prosecution for himself and his family.
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