Norway Sri Lanka expert to be environment minister

By Aasa Christina Stoltz

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's international development minister was also appointed environment minister on Thursday as part of the biggest cabinet reshuffle since the Labour-led government came to power two years ago.

Erik Solheim, a mediator between Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger rebels, will take over from his Socialist Party colleague Environment Minister Helen Bjoernoy who has been criticised by green activists for failing to exert more influence in a nation that depends heavily on oil revenues.

Solheim will keep his international development portfolio, an important foreign policy post in a country which spends about 1 percent of its gross domestic product on foreign aid, among the highest in the world.

"The fact that Erik Solheim will become both minister for the environment and for development is something we do to underline the close connection between development and the environment," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

He praised Bjoernoy, saying she had "achieved a lot".

The three-party cabinet, dominated by Stoltenberg's Labour Party, replaced two more ministers in a mid-term reshuffle a month after local elections in which the Socialists fared badly.

Stoltenberg appointed Tora Aasland, a regional governor, to head the ministry of education and research. Former immigration chief, Martinique-born Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen, will head the ministry for children and equality.

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.