[attach id=239964 size="medium"]Tunisia’s Prime Minister-designate Ali Larayedh. Photo: Reuters[/attach]

Independents will take over the foreign and defence ministries in Tunisia’s new government under a deal by the ruling Islamist party to cede key portfolios following violent unrest over the assassination of a secular opposition leader.

The new coalition of moderate Islamists, three secular parties and non-partisan figures aims to restore stability and prepare the troubled North African state, where the Arab Spring uprisings began in 2011, for elections later this year.

President Moncef Marzouki asked Interior Minister Ali Larayedh of the Islamist Ennahda party on February 22 to form a government within 15 days after Ennahda Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned.

Coalition sources said Othman Jarandi, a former Tunisian ambassador to the United Nations, Oman, South Korea and Pakistan, had been named as Foreign Minister to capitalise on his strong ties with international bodies and the West.

Tunisia needs to negotiate a $1.78 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The political turmoil has set back that quest and prompted Standard and Poor’s to lower its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit rating of Tunisia.