Iranian leader gives parliament list of ministers

The move is another sign that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to move ahead with his second term even as he faces challenges from opposition activists who continue to question the legitimacy of the June 12 elections and from conservatives in his own camp, AP reported.

A parliament vice-speaker, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, told state television that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's list includes 18 names and was given to the legislative body late Wednesday.

According to the report, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will remain in his post, and Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar has been nominated as the new interior minister.

Ahmadinejad named Commerce Minister Masoud Mir Kazemi as his new oil minister, a key position in the country. Some 80 percent of foreign revenue in Iran, the second largest oil producer in OPEC, comes from oil exports.

The vice-speaker said Ahmadinejad did not submit names for justice, commerce and defense ministers, but a report on the state television's Web site named General Ahmad Vahidi as defense minister. Vahidi worked as deputy defense minister in charge of research and development in the current administration.  

The Internet report also named Morteza Bakhtiari, currently a provincial governor, as the new minister of justice and Mahdi Ghazanfari, a deputy commerce minister, as the new minister of commerce.