Guinean cabinet reshuffled

The Guinean President, Lansana Conte, has dismissed five government ministers in a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle, and for the first time, has appointed a woman as foreign minister.

She is Mahawa Bangoura, who was formerly Guinea's representative at the United Nations.

Other ministries to change hands are security and interior, justice, health and planning and international cooperation.

No explanations have been given for the changes.

Correspondents say all the ministers who have lost their jobs are long-standing political allies of President Conte and have been in his cabinet since the introduction of multi-party politics in Guinea in 1992. The new appointments take place in the middle of the sedition trial of the leading opposition leader Alpha Conde.

Conde was a candidate in the December 1998 presidential election in which President Conte won.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service