The Egyptian Prime Minister-designate Hisham Kandil announced today the formation of a cabinet nearly a month into the tenure of the newly elected President Mohamed Mursi. Who won the country's first presidential election for the Islamic Muslim Brotherhood Party, since an uprising overthrew long-time leader Hosni Mubarak.

"Myself and my team and supervising authorities have made great efforts to make sure that we're choosing the best options. Of course we could have made some mistakes but I am sure that we put in a huge amount of effort to reach this final compilation of ministers. Regarding your question about the Ministry of Defence role , it has been retained by Field Marshall Hussein Tantawy."

Following the signing in, The Prime Minister shakes hands with President Mursi before greeting Field Marshall Tantawy, Foreign Minister Kamel Amr and the Finance Minister Mumtaz al- Said.

There are two challenges facing Egypt and the new government .The new cabinet will have to get to grips with Egypt's sharp economic downturn over the last 17 months, as well as on-going political paralysis, as the military and the new president vie for power. And there have been concerns amongst liberals and Egypt's Christian minority, that a Mursi government made up entirely of Islamists would place this minority group in a vulnerable position.

Written and presented by Ann Salter