UPDATE: PM Kandil meets 11 nominees for various cabinet portfolios

According to official news agency MENA, Egypt's newly-appointed Prime Minister Hisham Kandil met eleven nominees on Wednesday for various ministerial portfolios.

Yasser Ali, spokesman for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, had earlier said that members of Egypt's new cabinet would be unveiled by the middle of next week.

Kandil has stressed that the selection of ministers would be based mainly on nominees' efficiency and competence.

The prime minister confirmed that Nadia Zakhary, currently serving as scientific research minister in the interim government of Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, would remain at her post in the incoming cabinet.

Among the nominees with whom Kandil met on Wednesday were:

- Atef Radwan, dean of medicine at Zagazig University, who has been nominated for the post of health minister;

-Tarek Wafik, economy expert and urban planning professor, nominated to head up housing ministry;

- Mostafa Mosaad, member of Morsi's presidential campaign, nominated for the post of education minister;

-Hatem Abdel-Latif, arts professor, nominated for the post of social affairs minister;

- Aly Fahmy, owner of the Radio Shack chain of electronics stores and professor of information systems, nominated for the post of communications minister; and

-Mohamed Hazem Mohamed, electronic engineering professor at Cairo University, nominated for the post of communications minister.

Other candidates to have met with Kandil on Wednesday (for unspecified ministerial nominations) included:

- Mohamed Rashad, engineering professor at Cairo University (specialising in roads and bridges);

- Wael El-Nady, engineer;

- Tarek Abdel-Latif, architecture professor;

- Mohamed Yousry, chemical engineering professor at Cairo University; and

- Essam Khalifa, supervisor at the irrigation ministry.