The leader of the Islamic-led United Tajik Opposition -- UTO -- Syed Abdullah Nuri, has said President Imam Ali Rokhmonov has agreed to grant nineteen extra government posts to the UTO.

Mr Nuri said the new posts included deputy minister and deputy head of various departments.

Under the peace agreement signed between the UTO and the Communist-led government in 1997, which ended the Tajik civil war, the opposition received thirty percent of the posts in the new coalition government, or fourteen ministerial porfolios.