Number of ministries may be cut

The structure of the new Cabinet will be formed over a week after the Prime Minister is appointed, State Duma speaker, United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov declared today. He added that the government "may be really reduced and some 15 to 16 ministries out of the current 23 will remain". Gryzlov stressed that the new government "should work efficiently and constructively to achieve one of the main goals, which is to double the country's GDP". According to him, Mikhail Kasyanov's Cabinet failed to manage it.