After weeks of speculation, nine new ministers were sworn in today by Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi in a cabinet reshuffle believed to be crucial for securing a USD 4.8 billion IMF loan to revive the country's crumbling economy.
It is unlikely the International Monetary Fund would view the change as a sign the opposition has been included in the political process.
The changes fell well short of the opposition's demand for a complete overhaul of Prime Minister Hisham Kandil's administration and the installation of a neutral cabinet to oversee parliamentary elections later this year.
Kandil, a technocrat known to be of Islamic inclination, named nine new ministers.
They included Amr Darrag, a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, as planning minister.
Another Brotherhood member, Yehya Hamed, was named investment minister, and Ahmed el-Gezawi, an FJP member, took over agriculture.
Fayyad Abdel Moneim, a specialist in Islamic economics, was appointed as minister of finance, replacing Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegazy, another expert on Islamic finance who was appointed in January - the last time Kandil reshuffled the cabinet.
Member of Egypt's main opposition bloc, the National Salvation Front, Wahid Abd-el-Meguid said the reshuffle was "not supported as it does not include anything new".
Meanwhile Essam el-Erian, deputy head of the Freedom and Justice Party, told Al Jazeera's Egyptian news channel the aim of the reshuffle was to "confront the economic crisis and to conclude the agreement with the IMF with new spirit and a new vision, and to confront the energy crises", a reference to fuel shortages.
The changes underscored the polarised state of an Egyptian political scene split between Mursi and his Islamist allies and opposition parties that accuse him and the Brotherhood of trying to dominate the post-Hosni Mubarak order.
Mursi announced on April 20 he would carry out the reshuffle to replace a government widely criticised for failing to get the economy moving nine months into his presidency.
The United States, which gives Egypt USD 1.3 billion in military aid each year, has grown more critical of Mursi of late, listing a lack of political inclusivity as a concern.
The National Salvation Front (NSF), a loose alliance of opposition parties, wants Mursi to install a neutral government and replace the public prosecutor before elections that are expected to get under way in October.
Ahmed Suleiman was named as justice minister, replacing Ahmed Mekky, who resigned last month in protest at efforts by Mursi's Islamist allies to purge the judiciary.
The state, which subsidises diesel, cooking gas and other fuels, has been struggling to finance energy imports.
