Yemen to Get Unity Cabinet by Sunday

A government of unity will be announced in Yemen before Sunday, the opposition said, in line with a peace deal that is to see President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down from power.

"There is a deal with the ruling party on the distribution of posts. Forming a cabinet will be very easy," Mohammed Qahtan, spokesman for the parliamentary opposition coalition, told Agence France Presse.

The government will be announced on Friday or Saturday, he added.

Opposition chief Mohammed Basindawa was charged on Sunday with forming a government tasked with overseeing a 90-day interim period until Saleh's agreed departure in February.

The peace deal, agreed under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh last week, is meant to end 10 months of crisis that has led to violent protests and intense street fighting across Yemen.

In it, the opposition is to evenly share cabinet portfolios with Saleh's ruling party.

According to Qahtan, the posts to fill were handed out by lottery with the opposition ending up with the ministries of interior, finance, cooperation, information and human rights.

Saleh's ruling party is to keep the ministries of defense, foreign affairs, oil, telecommunications and civil services.

"The forming of a cabinet will be very easy" as the Gulf deal stipulates that each party accept the nominations of the other, Qahtan said.

Another opposition source told AFP the two groups would meet on Saturday to reveal their choices to fill the ministry posts.

The new government will enter office swearing-in to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, to whom Saleh transferred effective power in accordance with the Gulf-brokered deal.

Saleh, 69, has ruled Yemen for 33 years and signed a deal mediated by Gulf Cooperation Council states in which he agreed to step down in return for immunity from prosecution for himself and his family.

On Thursday, more than 13 people were killed in clashes between forces loyal to Saleh and dissident tribesmen in the country's second-largest city Taez.