Kathmandu (dpa) - Nepal's prime minister expanded his cabinet for the fifth time in three months on Tuesday, inducting seven more ministers.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai appointed six ministers from the Maoist party, of which he is a member, and one from the Sadbhavna-Anandidevi party.
This has taken the total number of members to 22.
The new ministers were sworn in by President Ram Baran Yadav at the presidential palace.
The expansion of the cabinet came just weeks ahead of the late November deadline to draft a constitution.
The expansion is also being seen as a move by Bhattarai to strengthen his position in the Maoist central committee, as those inducted belong to the establishment faction, and not to the dissident Vaidhya faction of hardline Maoists.
Over a dozen state ministers, junior ministers who also sit in the cabinet, were set to be sworn in late Tuesday.
The full shape of the cabinet has been delayed as the Vaidhya faction refused to join, accusing the prime minister of denying them important ministries.
The faction has been at loggerheads with the establishment faction over the handover of Maoist arms to the government and the recent deal over the integration of 6,500 Maoist combatants into the national army.
The Vaidhya faction has demanded that all 19,000 former Maoist combatants be integrated to the normal army en masse. A current deal would see just 6,500 of them posted to non-central units such as forestry management or disaster response.
The Maoists appeared the strongest party until the recent rift, which has provoked speculation that the party may split, and increased fears of another "revolution" as threatened by the Vaidhya faction.
Other parties have accused the Maoists of holding up the peace process and the writing of a constitution writing with their bickering.
The Maoists joined mainstream politics after a decade-long insurgency that ended with the signing of a peace deal in 2006.
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