LONDON -- Libya named a new prime minister and Cabinet Sunday, blaming personal differences in the old Cabinet for slipshod work that at one point caused Libya to miss an important ministerial conference.
But it was not known exactly what power the new Cabinet holds or whether the abrupt changes came amid an internal political power struggle.
Col. Moammar Gadhafi is the sole leader of Libya. He retains the position as 'leader of the revolution,' although he holds no formal post in the administration.
The Libyan General Peoples Congress, the highest policy-making body in the country, announced the shuffle in a live broadcast on Libyan Television, monitored in London, in which the Congress heard an official report sharply critical of departing Foreign Minister Kamil Hasan Mansur.
The 'Accountability Bureau' report, read to Congress, said Mansur dominated other members of the Cabinet with a 'monopolistic attitude' and that the 'multiplicity of personal differences' reflected negatively on their work.
These personal differences, it said, caused Libya to miss an 'important' but unspecified ministerial conference.
The Congress, a body of some 1,000 delegates that normally meets for about a week twice a year, also named Umar Mustafa al-Muntasir the new secretary of the committee, effectively the Libyan prime minister. He replaces Jadallah Azzuz al-Talhi, who becomes the new head of the Peoples Bureau for Foreign Liaison, or foreign minister.
Other new Cabinet appointments were made for security, information and culture, planning, industry, and trade.
The report read to Congress criticized Mansur's failure to follow in a 'careful scientific manner' the work of the Libyan Peoples Bureaus, or embassies, abroad.
The report said the lack of 'spirit of initiative in dealing with political problems and in tackling the policies of the hostile states' had caused the Foreign Ministry to 'react rather than act.'
It said both the Foreign Ministry and the Information Secretariat failed to take any 'political initiative over the events in Chad.'
It also noted the foreign ministry's shortcomings in 'confronting' a visit by the Israeli president to Australia and Southeast Asia last year. It said the ministry should have taken measures to organize protests against the visit or to summon the ambassadors of the countries involved to inform them of Libya's dissatisfaction.
The report said Mansur personally accepted responsibility for 'negligence' in the matter. It did not say what, if anything, would happen to Mansur.
Other Cabinet appointments endorsed Sunday by the Congress included:
Muhammad Ali al-Musrati as secretary for internal security; Ibrahim Muhammad al-Bushari as secretary for external security; Rajab Miftah Budabbus as information and culture chairman; Muhammad Lutfi Farhat as planning secretary; Dr. Fathi Ahmad Bin Shatwan as industry secretary; Farhat Sharnanah as economy and trade secretary.