Iran has approved the merging of four key economic ministries into two to make them more efficient and streamline bureacracy, the centrist Entekhab newspaper reported Monday.
The move, approved on Sunday, will merge into one the ministries of agriculture and reconstruction. The reconstruction ministry was created following the 1979 Islamic revolution with the task of developing rural areas. Also to be merged are the ministries of industry and of mines and metals.
The government had already wrapped the heavy industries ministry into the industry portfolio in the 1990s.
The organizational changes will entail a ministerial shuffle, something allies of reformist President Mohammad Khatami have been seeking for the past three months.
Reformists, who won a parliamentary majority in the February elections, have been calling for representation in the Khatami government, formed in August 1997.
Khatami heads a coalition cabinet that includes reformist, moderate and radical parties.
© Agence France Presse 2000
