The list of new ministers included changing the veteran oil minister, as well as introducing politicians who had been opposed to the rule of Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down from office on February 11 after widespread protests.

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who leads the ruling military council and has been defense minister for about 20 years, took the new ministers' oaths of office.

Mubarak reshuffled his cabinet shortly after protests erupted on January 25 in a bid to assuage anger against his 30-year rule, but rage continued to build until his ouster on February 11.

The latest reshuffle brought into the cabinet a few opposition figures including Yehia el-Gamal, deputy prime minister, the Wafd party's Mounir Abdel Nour as tourism minister and Tagammu party's Gowdat Abdel-Khaleq as minister of social solidarity and social justice.

Both Wafd and Tagammu had often been close to Mubarak's government.

The Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS) said the government's appointment of Ismail Ibrahim Fahmy as new labor minister showed it continued to "co-opt formal labor unions and the labor ministry," it said in a statement.

Fahmy was the treasurer of the general union for workers syndicates in Egypt. "We warn of the dire consequences of defying the will of the workers and their legitimate right to enjoy union rights," CTUWS said.

Egyptian online democracy activists called for a demonstration on February 22 to demand the removal of the country's interim government, saying it contains too many old faces.