Tripoli: Libya's top legislative and executive body on Sunday appointed Al Baghdadi Ali Al Mahmoudi as prime minister, replacing Shokri Ghanem who was put in charge of the country's oil sector.

The General People's Congress also said in a statement that Fathi Omar Bin Shatwan, who was oil minister during Ghanem's premiership, lost the oil portfolio in the cabinet reshuffle, with his department renamed the Industry, Electricity and Mining Ministry.

Ghanem was appointed chairman of the National Oil Corporation, replacing Abdallah Al Badri and giving him effective control over oil policy, it said.

The congress also named Farhat Omar Bin Guidara as the new central bank governor, replacing Ahmad Mohammad Moneisi.

Moneisi takes the job of finance minister, replacing Mohammed Ali Al Houeiz, who becomes the North African country's deputy prime minister.

Deputy Interior Minister Salah Rajab Al Masmari was named as the new interior minister, replacing Nasser Al Mabrouk Abdallah, who was fired last month.

The congress had blamed him for the "disproportionate use of force" on February. 17 when police killed 11 people and injured more than 60 to prevent youths storming the Italian consulate in the eastern coastal city of Benghazi in protests over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The statement, read out on state television, gave no reason for the government reshuffle.

The last such cabinet reshuffle was in 2004.

Ghanem had held the premier's job since June 2003.

Ghanem, who studied in the United States, had tried to move the socialist economy towards a free market model, but his policies were roundly criticised by Libya's local People's Committees, which implement government policy.