Egypt's Tantawi keeps defence ministry post

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi will keep his post as defense minister in Egypt's first Muslim Brotherhood-led administration, Prime Minister-designate Hisham Kandil said on Thursday.                

Tantawi served as President Hosni Mubarak's defense minister for two decades until the military assumed power from the former leader in February, 2011, ending a mass uprising against his rule.    

This as Islamist president is to swear in a new Cabinet as tensions rise over the country's tenuous security, recent sectarian violence and popular discontent over issues such as widespread water and power outages.
 
The ceremony comes over a week after President Mohammed Morsi named political novice Hesham Kandil as prime minister. The U.S.-educated Kandil will announce the Cabinet lineup on Thursday before he and his ministers are sworn in by Morsi.

Egypt's new Prime Minister Hisham Kandil will hold a meeting with members of his government on Saturday to discuss the next steps on seeking an International Monetary Fund loan, Kandil said.
   
An IMF deal would help Egypt stave off a budget and balance of payments crisis and add credibility to economic reforms needed to restore the confidence of investors who fled the country after a popular uprising last year.
  
"We will have a meeting on Saturday headed by me to look into our next steps," Kandil told reporters in Cairo on Thursday.

On the ground:

Sectarian clashes between Muslims and Copts renewed as of Wednesday night in a village near Cairo after the death of a Muslim man from wounds sustained during the clashes.

The village of  Dahshur (30 km) south of Cairo was subsequently attacked when Muslims set fire to three houses inhabited by Copts to protest  the murder of the young man.

The sources pointed out that the security forces intervened to break up the fight leading to the injury of police members who then resorted to tear gas to disperse the mob.


REUTERS/LBCI