France Unveils Hollande's New Government

France unveiled President Francois Hollande's new government on Wednesday, with former prime minister Laurent Fabius, 65, named foreign minister and Pierre Moscovici, 54, finance minister.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, a 64-year-old local politician from Brittany, was named defense minister, while Manuel Valls, a free-market modernizer seen as on the right of the Socialist Party, was named interior minister.

Not counting Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was named by the Socialist Hollande on Tuesday, the cabinet consists of 34 members, two more than the outgoing cabinet that served under right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy.

Though most of the top-level posts were held by men, it was also the first French cabinet to reach gender parity, meeting a promise made by Hollande during the election campaign.

Hollande also chose close ally Michel Sapin, 60, as labor minister and put Arnaud Montebourg, a 49-year-old from the left wing of the Socialist party, in charge of reindustrialization.

Moscovici, a former European affairs minister, was Hollande's campaign manager and transition chief.

Jerome Cahuzac, 59 and the head of parliament's budget committee, was named budget minister, while Christiane Taubira, a 60-year-old lawmaker from French Guiana, was named justice minister.

The first cabinet session was take place on Thursday at 1300 GMT.

Notably absent from the line-up was Socialist leader and former labor minister Martine Aubry, a key figure in the party's old-guard left wing, who said she would not join cabinet after being passed up for the premiership.