Oslo - Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg presented a reshuffled cabinet Tuesday that reflected his Labour Party's gains in last month's elections. The Labour Party added the finance ministry portfolio to its share. The ministry was to be headed by Sigbjorn Johnsen - a party veteran who served in that capacity 1990-1996 under former premier Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Johnsen replaced Kristin Halvorsen, leader of the Socialist Left Party, who moved to the ministry for education and research, a "ministry for the future," she said.
Stoltenberg's red-green coalition that won another four-year term in office also includes the Centre Party. The Labour Party has 12 portfolios, while the junior partners have four each.
"This is a renewal and reflects a lot of experience," Stoltenberg said of the new cabinet that included seven new ministers. The premier also noted that 10 of the 20 cabinet members were women.
The Labour Party kept the defence ministry portfolio but Anne- Grete Strom-Erichsen moved to the health ministry and was replaced by Grete Faremo, another politician who served under Brundtland.
Jonas Gahr Store of the Labour Party was to stay on as foreign minister, as was Erik Solheim, minister of environment and international development, who belongs to the Socialist Left Party.
New labour minister Hanne Bjurstrom was to stay on as Norway's chief negotiator at the international climate talks until the pending UN conference in December in Copenhagen have been concluded.
Among the changes in the new government, the justice ministry was also to handle immigration affairs.
The Labour party gained three more seats in the September 14 elections and now they occupy 64 of the 169 parliament seats. The other two parties in the coalition have 11 seats each.
