51.   The ministers held their meeting without Oskar Lafontaine in the chair.

52.   The ministers hold formal meetings Thursday and Friday.

53.   The ministers were holding two days of talks on political and military cooperation.

54.   The portfolios that each minister will hold and the eventual Cabinet size were not immediately known.

55.   The two African ministers held talks at the foreign ministry Monday and Tuesday.

56.   The women ministers hold the agriculture, environment and education and culture portfolios.

57.   They also agreed that Chinese and Australian vice ministers will hold annual talks on trade and economic cooperation, with ministerial meetings twice a year, Xinhua said.

58.   They reaffirmed church doctrine allowing ministers to hold varying interpretations of biblical accounts of creation and letting only men preach.

59.   They said the reshuffle had been expected because some the ministers were holding two or more portfolios and others were ill.

60.   Twenty-nine ministers have never held Cabinet posts before, but several key portfolios went to veterans of other ministries.