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KIGALI, April 17 (AFP) - Rwanda's newly-named premier on Thursday announced the formation of a coalition government grouping the country's five main parties.
In the new government, the ruling and formerly sole party MRND shares power with opposition groups, in accordance with a pact signed earlier this month.
President Juvenal Habyarimana's MRND party had ruled Rwanda as the only legal party since its creation in 1975, but constitutional changes last June opened the way to multiparty politics.
The government was named just a week after Habyarimana appointed Dismas Nsengiyaremye, the leader of the opposition Republican Democratic Movement, as prime minister, replacing an unpopular figure from the ruling party.
The president's party was given nine cabinet posts, including defense, interior, planning and youth.
Nsengiyaremye's party received three other posts in addition to the premiership: foreign affairs, information and primary and secondary education.
The remaining posts were divided among the Social Democrat Party, the Liberal Party and the Christian Democrat Party.
The new government is to attempt to negotiate a peace settlement with a rebel movement in northern Rwanda, made up mostly of Tutsi exiles who fled the country to neighboring Uganda in the wake of massacres by the majority Hutu people.
The government is also expected to organize free local, parliamentary and presidential elections.
mgu/lg/bm AFP AFP SEQN-0033
