Syrian Government Resigns

Syria's Cabinet resigned Tuesday and President Hafez Assad named a provincial governor as the new prime minister, a presidential spokesman said.

It was unclear whether the new government would include Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, who is in charge of Mideast peace talks.

Prime Minister Mahmoud el-Zouebi's 37-member Cabinet submitted its resignation to Assad, the ultimate authority in Syria, in the first major government shake-up since 1992.

Assad named Mustafa Mohammed Miro, governor of the northern Aleppo province, as the new prime minister, presidential spokesman Jibran Kourieh said.

"The president has asked the outgoing government to continue its work until the new government is formed," Kourieh said.

The naming of a new government is seen as a move by Assad to help him press ahead with promised social and economic reforms.

It also reflects the leadership's desire to inject new blood in the aging Cabinet as the country struggles to modernize and to eradicate corruption.

The composition of the new government would also have a direct bearing on Syria's peace talks with Israel.

In a speech after being elected to a fifth seven-year term in a national referendum last year, Assad hinted at his dissatisfaction with the government's performance.

The change was anticipated by those close to the Syrian president.

Assad's son Bashar said in an interview published on Tuesday that he would welcome a change in the Syrian government and that he had recommended some suitable candidates for cabinet jobs.

Colonel Bashar al-Assad, who has been playing an increasing role in local and foreign affairs, also said in the interview with his father's biographer, Patrick Seale, that his ambition was "to serve my country and not to become a president."

"We are in need of change. We need it today more than any time before," Seale quoted Bashar as saying in the interview published by the Saudi-owned newspaper al-Hayat.

Bashar said the ruling Baath party, headed by President Assad, would hold its first general conference in 15 years later this year but no specific date had been set so far.