Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday revealed the names of ministers making up his new cabinet four days after the State Duma (lower house of parliament) overwhelmingly voted to approve Mikhail Fradkov, nominated by Putin, as Russia's new prime minister, Interfax News Agency reported.  

Alexander Zhukov, co-leader of the pro-Putin United Russia Party and deputy speaker of the State Duma, was appointed deputy prime minister.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's envoy to the United Nations, was named as new foreign minister, replacing Igor Ivanov, who was named as Security Council secretary.

Former Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin retained on their cabinet posts.

Also from the former cabinet, Sergei Ivanov, Sergei Shoigu, Alexei Gorgeyev and Yuri Chaika retained their positions as defense minister, emergency situations minister, agriculture and fisheries minister and justice minister respectively.

Putin appointed Rashid Nurgalieyv interior minister, Viktor Khristenko industry and energy minister, Mikhail Zurabov health and social development minister, Andrei Fursenko education and science minister, Alexander Sokolov culture and information minister, Yury Trutnev natural resources minister and Igor Levitin transport and communications minister.

Dmitri Kozak was appointed chief of the government staff with the rank of minister.

Putin, who made the announcement during a meeting with the leaders of the Kremlin administration and several acting Cabinet members, said the new government will comprise 17 instead of 30 ministries.

The appointments came five days ahead of the country's presidential poll, which is widely expected to result in a landslide victory for Putin.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2004)