Algerian PM says cabinet to be formed early next week

Algerian Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui said on Thursday that his new cabinet would be formed early next week and would start consultations to pick the chairman for a national conference on the political transition.

Ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has decided not to run for a fifth term in the face of mass demonstrations.

Bedoui was appointed premier this week after his predecessor Ahmed Ouyahia resigned.

Bedoui, said he would form an inclusive and technocratic government that involved young Algerians who have been protesting to push for quick political changes.

His promise came at a news conference in Algiers.

The prime minister urged the opposition to accept dialogue. But lawyers and activists chosen by the protesters to lead the drive for reforms are in no mood to compromise and say they will not negotiate, at least for now.

Bouteflika, who has been in power for 20 years and has rarely appeared in public since a stroke in 2013, has promised to work for a new era that would cater to all Algerians.

His offer came after tens of thousands of Algerians protested for weeks to demand an overhaul of a stagnant political system dominated by veterans of the 1954-62 war of independence.