Dakar - Senegal's new president, Abdoulaye Wade, in his first act since formally taking office, has named his election ally Moustapha Niasse as prime minister.
Opposition veteran Wade, sworn in on Saturday in front of tens of thousands of supporters at the West African nation's biggest sports stadium, appointed Niasse in the evening.
The nomination fulfilled a promise made before the March 19 second round of the presidential election in which Wade, with support from Niasse and a coalition of other oppositions leaders, defeated sitting President Abdou Diouf.
Wade, who is expected to announce his full government by Monday, named Idrissa Seck, his deputy in the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), as a minister of state with responsibility for running the presidential office.
Wade's victory ended four decades of Socialist Party domination which began with Senegal's independence from France in 1960.
He swept to power with the support of the young and an opposition alliance who all rallied to his call for change or Sopi, its name in the local Wolof language.
Both Wade, 73, and Niasse are former members of the Socialist Party. Wade, who won the presidency at his fifth attempt, left the party back in the 1970s.
Niasse, who was Diouf's foreign minister until 1998, also grew disillusioned with the party. In 1999, he announced his intention to contest the presidency, and finished third in the first round.
His support and that of most of the first-round candidates helped carry Wade to victory, with 58,49 percent of second-round votes to 41,51 percent for Diouf.
Diouf, in a rare gesture in Africa, acknowledged defeat as soon as initial trends showed he had lost.
After a formal transfer of power at the presidential palace on Saturday, Diouf left for Morocco and Egypt. In Cairo, at Wade's request, he will represent Senegal at the Europe-Africa summit. - Reuters