Saudi king names second deputy prime minister

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has appointed the kingdom's powerful interior minister and his half brother as the nation's second deputy prime minister.

The appointment indicates a succession order in the royal family, after four years of speculation over who will be the next-in-line once current heir, Prince Sultan, becomes king.

According to a royal statement carried by the official SPA news agency, Prince Nayef will take over the post, which is seen as a crown-prince-in-waiting.

The Saudi constitution does not require the king to appoint a second deputy prime minister.

With Sultan away in the United States on medical treatment, Nayef's appointment will ensure that when Abdullah goes to the Arab Summit in Qatar next week and later to the G-20 meetings, somebody will be in charge at home.

However, Nayef's appointment as second to the throne will still have to go through the Allegiance Association's vote.

Nayef's appointment comes five months after Sultan, who is the first deputy prime minister, left for New York for medical tests and later surgery.

Within hours of the announcement, another of Abdullah's half brothers, Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz, issued a statement saying Naye's appointment should not come at the expense of the Allegiance's authority and that it should not be assumed that he will automatically become second-in-line to the throne.

Talal said Nayef's appointment was just "an administrative nomination."