Sri Lanka: Norway Sri Lanka expert to be environment minister
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Thursday, 18 October 2007 |
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OSLO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Norway's international development minister, a mediator between Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger rebels, will become environment minister in a cabinet reshuffle, Norway's public NRK radio said on Thursday.
Erik Solheim would take over from his Socialist Party colleague Environment Minister Helen Bjoernoy who has been criticised by environmental activists for failing to exert more influence in a nation that depends heavily on oil revenues.
"We never comment on that type of report," a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said when asked about NRK's report of a small reshuffle of the three-party cabinet, dominated by Stoltenberg's Labour Party.
Reshuffles in Norway are usually unveiled at weekly cabinet meetings, held on Fridays.
NRK also said that Minister of Education and Research Oeystein Djupedal, another Socialist, would step down. It did not say who would succeed Djupedal or Solheim. The government has been in office since 2005.
Solheim helped broker a now collapsed 2002 ceasefire in Sri Lanka. He has said that Norway is ready to help at any time to resume attempts to end two decades of civil war between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels.
About 70,000 people have died in the conflict.
The outspoken Solheim, a former leader of the Socialist Party, might give a higher profile to the environment in Norway.
Solheim said last month that an opinion poll once showed that he and U.S. President George W. Bush were the best known foreigners in Sri Lanka.
Both Bjoernoy and Djupedal have faced criticism after the Socialists suffered poor results in a local election in September. Support for the Socialists halved compared with the local elections in 2003.
The government launched in April what it called "the world's most ambitious climate goal", where it pledged to reach zero net emissions of carbon dioxide by 2050 through a mix of cuts at home, green investments abroad and purchases of CO2 permits.
But Stoltenberg claimed most of the credit and Bjoernoy has often been in the shadows.
Reuters
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