Sao Tome and Principe's new government took office Friday, according to reports from Sao Tome.

Sao Tome and Principe's President Fradique de Menezes formally designated political ally Tom Vera Cruz as prime minister and gave his blessing to the proposed 11-member cabinet formed by the Force for Change Democratic Movement - Democratic Convergence Party ( MDFM-PCD) coalition late Thursday.

Backed by Menezes, the two-party opposition alliance won the voting on March 26 and April 2, but fell short of a parliamentary majority, gaining 23 of the legislature's 55 seats.

Talks are underway between the MDFM-PCD and the outgoing ruling party, the Movement for the Liberation of Sao Tome and Principe ( MLSTP) that has 20 lawmakers, with a view to assuring the new government majority support when it presents its program to parliament next month.

Leader of the MDFM, Vera Cruz, the new prime minister, is a Romanian-educated electrical engineer, who served briefly as minister of natural resources in an MLSTP-led government in 2003.

Beyond heading the 11-member cabinet, which includes four women, Vera Cruz, 50, will also hold the information and regional integration portfolios.

Maria Tebus, of the PCD party, will serve as deputy prime minister, simultaneously assuming the Planning and Finance Ministry.

The Defense and Internal Order Ministry stays with Oscar Sousa, who led the controversial siege of the Supreme Tribunal during ballot recounting last week, while the foreign affairs portfolio goes to diplomat Carlos Gustavo.

The key Natural Resources Ministry, responsible for managing the impoverished Gulf of Guinea archipelago's advance into offshore oil exploration, goes to economist Manuel Dias Lima.

The MDFM and PCD parties have sided with Menezes' so far frustrated efforts to strengthen presidential prerogatives in the islands' semi-presidential power-sharing system.

Menezes is expected to seek a second five-year presidential mandate in elections slated for a still undefined date later this year.

Source: Xinhua