By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Mali's new prime minister has named only loyalists to his government, replacing the defence minister as the army faces a renewed revolt by Tuareg nomads in the desert north and appointing a Tuareg to the cabinet.

Modibo Sidibe removed all the opposition representatives from the West African country's previous government of national unity. Sidibe was named by President Amadou Toumani Toure last week after a parliamentary election in July.

Most ministers were dismissed in the reshuffle, announced late on Wednesday and broader than some had expected. All the opposition members from ex-premier Ousmane Issoufi Maiga's government were replaced by Toure loyalists.

Key ministers close to Toure held onto the strategic territorial administration, internal security, finance and foreign ministries, but Defence Minister Mamadou Clazie Cissouma was among the casualties.

Cissouma was replaced by Natie Plea, a close friend and political ally of Toure who was sports minister in the outgoing government and previously served as regional governor of the capital Bamako.

Cissouma's final weeks as defence minister were blighted by a revolt by Tuareg nomads who have abducted dozens of soldiers and civilians in a series of raids in the Saharan north, mirroring an 8-month-old rebellion in neighbouring Niger.

He was replaced despite the fact that his ministry claimed a victory last week by dislodging Tuareg soldiers led by dissident army officer Ibrahima Bahanga, who had been besieging the remote northern border town of Tin-Zaouatene since mid-September.

Army sources said the dissidents fled across the frontier into Algeria.

Sidibe also named a Tuareg, Agathane Ag Alassane, as minister of environment and sanitation in the new cabinet.

The outgoing cabinet did not include any Tuaregs, although some have previously served in government, particularly since a 1990s peace deal to end a previous rebellion. The deal promised to integrate more of the light-skinned nomadic tribesmen into an administration dominated by black Africans from the south.

Mali was gripped by Tuareg rebellions shortly after independence from France in the 1960s, and again in the 1990s, when Tuaregs and other light-skinned Saharan communities revolted in neighbouring Niger too.

AlertNet news is provided by