Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Sunday named opposition National Council's chairman Mohamed Basindwa as the new prime minster, assigning him to form a new consensus government in line with a Gulf-brokered deal, official Saba news agency reported.

"Vice President Hadi designated Mohamed Basindwa to form a new national consensus government to replace the caretaker government of Ali Mohammed Mujawar," a republican decree issued by Hadi said, carried by Saba.

"In line with the UN-backed Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative and its implementation mechanism, which both were signed in Riyadh on Nov. 23, and based on a nomination by the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) and their allies, we assigned Mohamed Salim Basindwa to form a national unity cabinet," said the republican decree.

It was Hadi's second resolution to implement the GCC deal after outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed it and transferred power to Hadi on Wednesday in Riyadh under the supervision of the GCC leaders and UN envoy to Yemen Jamal bin Omar.

On Saturday, Hadi declared Feb. 21 as the date for early presidential elections. According to the deal, 69-year-old Saleh is going to submit his resignation to the parliament 30 days after he signed the deal. Saleh would be the fourth leader forced out of power by peaceful popular protests.

Basindwa was nominated to acting president Hadi by the JMP on Friday to head the new government in line with the GCC deal.

Basindwa is due to form a government with equal participation of the opposition and the ruling party within one week, according to the officials.

Basindwa was born in Aden in 1935. He served as foreign minister from 1993 to 1994 and is now the chairman of the opposition National Council formed to lead the 10-month-old protests against Saleh.

Saleh sacked Mujawar's government in March after several ministers defected and joined the protest movement that began in February to demand an end to Saleh's 33-year rule.

Hours before Hadi named Basindwa as the new prime minister, Saleh chaired a meeting of the ruling party's leaders in Sanaa, granted pardon for all the prisoners who were jailed during the 10- month political crisis this year, except those who were behind the June 3 bomb attack on the presidential compound, according to Saba.

"It's necessary to remove sit-in camps and stop staging demonstrations and attacks on the state military camps in order to make the GCC initiative succeed," Saleh addressed the meeting, which was attended by Hadi, who then said "Yemen was at a crossroad and was about to slide into a civil war, but President Ali Abdullah Saleh's signature (of the GCC deal) saved the country. "

After the meeting, Hadi ordered the withdrawal of the state forces from the streets of Sanaa in line with the terms of the GCC deal, a senior official of the Defense Ministry told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Government officials said that according to the GCC deal Saleh will retain the title of honorary president until a new leader is elected.

One of the Yemeni government officials told Xinhua that "Saleh will take part in overseeing the implementation of the power- transfer deal."

The GCC deal aimed to meet the Yemenis' political aspirations and end the months-long turmoil that almost brought the impoverished Arab state to the verge of civil war and economic collapse.

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