Peru's respected outgoing economy minister, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, took over as prime minister on Tuesday at the helm of a revamped team designed to lead Peru to clean elections next year, Reuters reported. Ending the worst turbulence in his rocky four years in power, President Alejandro Toledo swore in a new Cabinet with seven new ministers -- many of them senior figures in his Peru Posible party. "I know we have a demanding task. I know we have a long way to go and we have to do it together," Toledo said at a ceremony at the presidential palace after swearing in his new team. Last week Toledo sparked a Cabinet crisis when he appointed controversial ally Fernando Olivera as foreign minister. Carlos Ferrero resigned as prime minister because of the appointment, a move that by law forced the rest of the Cabinet to quit as well. Ferrero and other ministers had disagreed with Olivera on a regional law in southern Peru legalizing some cultivation of the raw material for cocaine. Toledo's party and a majority of Peruvians, according to a weekend poll, also opposed the move. Kuczynski, a political independent who helped turn Peru's economy from moribund in 2001 to one of the region's best performers, is Peru's fifth prime minister in four years and will have the task of keeping the rocky government on an even keel ahead of the vote. --more 2331 Local Time 2031 GMT
