Simitis sticks by his team

The Greek Prime Minister, Costas Simitis, kept the backbone of his economic team when he named his new socialist cabinet but chose a different defence minister to oversee plans to beef up the military. Yannos Papandoniou retained his post as national economy minister as well as being given the finance ministry. Simitis's boldest move was to remove Gerasimos Arsenis, an old-guard socialist, from the defence ministry and replace him with Akis Tsohatzopoulos. He challenged Simitis for the party leadership in June, and lost, but has since strongly supported the new premier.

Reuter - Athens