Tonga's Prime Minister Prince 'Ulukalala Lavaka Ata will give up some of his many portfolios, he announced today before going to a Cabinet meeting.

It is understood that a reorganisation of some top ministerial posts will relieve the over-burdened Prime Minister of some of his duties. The king's youngest son, currently holds the offices of Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Civil Aviation, and Minister of Defence, and also the Departments of Communication and Immigration.

The new Ministerial appointments and possibly a Cabinet reshuffle will be announced soon.

The Prime Minister said he has names and a short list but it will up to the King to decide who will hold any new Portfolios. "All will be revealed in the next few weeks," he said in announcing his plans earlier today in a press release.

The Prime Minister said he will reorganise Tonga...’s Government with the addition of a Ministry of Home Affairs and later a Ministry of Transportation, "because I have too many duties and would like to divulge them so I can focus on the running of Government as a whole."

He said the new Home Affairs Ministry would deal with economic development and be under a different person.

"The Ministry will be responsible for better co-ordination, like the functions of Central Planning, which is still under the Prime Minister," he said.

Meanwhile, the Government is currently holding talks with the World Bank, he said, to fund the establishment of a Ministry of Transportation, looking into the commercialisation of Fua'amotu Airport.

He believed that all forms of transport should be under a single ministry and the new Ministry of Transportation will be an amalgamation of the existing aviation, marine and ports and works ministries.

"Our current policies have not shown any significant changes. Some of the policies have not worked," said the Prime Minister.

He said the reorganisation would be, "as soon as we can mobilise Parliament to change some legislation which is in the near future."

The Prime Minister said Government would try to privatise what can be privatised. "In the past the Ministry of Works used to carry out a lot of contracting for Government, it is time to hand it over to the private sector because Government does not have the money to continue doing so," he said.