PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 7 (Reuters) - Haiti took a step toward installing a new government on Wednesday as the Senate ratified nominee Ericq Pierre for prime minister, more than a month after violent protests over rising food prices that led to the ouster of the old government.

The Senate voted 17-0 with two abstentions to approve Pierre, an adviser at the Inter-American Development Bank. His appointment will not become final until he is approved by the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house in Haiti's Parliament.

Pierre would replace Jacques Edouard Alexis, who was fired by the Senate on April 12 after a week of food riots that killed at least six people. Senators said Alexis had not done enough to ramp up national food production and lower the cost of living in the poorest country in the Americas. (Reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva, editing by Jim Loney)

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