Egypt's Morsi meets with Ganzouri Govt for first time as president
Ahram Online, Monday 2 Jul 2012
President Morsi meets with El-Ganzouri's caretaker cabinet to discuss pressing issues; Current govt to remain in place until Morsi appoints fresh cabinet


Newly-inaugurated President Mohamed Morsi met with Egypt's caretaker cabinet on Sunday to discuss the many challenges facing the country in the upcoming period.

At the meeting, it was agreed that the caretaker government, headed up by Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, would continue to function until Morsi appointed a new cabinet.

According to Morsi spokesman Yasser Ali, the meeting tackled a range of pressing matters, including state subsidies and supply issues, Egypt's access to Nile water, and the need for accord between the country's primary political players.

The three-hour meeting also touched on the main planks of Morsi's electoral programme, especially those pertaining to security, public health, bread and fuel supplies, and longstanding urban planning issues such as traffic congestion and sanitation.

The El-Ganzouri Cabinet, meanwhile, will begin applying the new 2012/2013 budget – approved by the military council on Sunday afternoon – on 8 July.

The meeting was attended by military council head Hussein Tantawi, who also currently serves as defence minister.

The El-Ganzouri Cabinet had reportedly drawn up a document detailing challenges facing Egypt to be presented to the president at Sunday's meeting.

El-Ganzouri, who served as prime minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak in the late 1990s, was reappointed to the position by the military council in December of last year.

The day after results of Egypt's hotly-contested presidential poll were announced last week,El-Ganzouri tendered his resignation to the military council. Standard protocol, however, dictates that the cabinet hand in its resignation to the elected president.

In late March, tension rose between the El-Ganzouri government and Egypt's democratically-elected, Islamist-led parliament, with the latter calling for a withdrawal of confidence in the cabinet for its "mishandling" of Egypt's post-revolution transitional phase.

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