Japan's new PM names cabinet

Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama named his ministers on Wednesday and was due to convene the cabinet for an evening meeting at 9:40 pm local time (1240 GMT).

Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama named his ministers on Wednesday and was due to convene the cabinet for an evening meeting at 9:40 pm local time (1240 GMT).

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Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, the top government spokesman, announced the line-up as the new ministers gathered at the prime minister's office, hours after parliament confirmed Hatoyama as premier.

Hirohisa Fujii -- a 77-year-old former finance ministry bureaucrat who has railed against wasteful public spending -- was appointed finance minister, a post which he briefly held in the early 1990s.

Katsuya Okada, 56, a one-time trade ministry technocrat known for his deep policy knowledge and strait-laced "Mr Clean" image, was named foreign minister.