Abdurrahim El-Keib, pitched from academic obscurity to head Libya's new government, set about selecting his cabinet today, hoping to rally the disparate groups which toppled Muammar Gadafy behind a democratic peace.
After decades as a dissident in exile, working as a professor of electrical engineering, Mr Keib's family background in Tripoli and his long spells living in both the United States and the Gulf were still being poured over by analysts for clues to his surprise election by the interim ruling council.
Some saw his links to the capital offering a balance to the hold on the National Transitional Council (NTC) by eastern Libyans from Benghazi, the seat of the uprising. Historic regional rivalries are part of a matrix of divisions among the six million Libyans which have been inflamed by months of war.
His lack of past service under Gadafy, in contrast to NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil and others, and his presence in Libya during most of this year's fighting, in contrast to the outgoing wartime prime minister Mahmoud Jibril, may also boost his legitimacy as the government tries to organise elections.
Mr Keib was elected with 26 votes from the 51-member NTC yesterday in Tripoli, taking over from Mr Jibril, who had promised to resign once the killing of Gadafy and fall of final bastions of support allowed last week's declaration of "liberation".
Under a timetable for democracy drawn up by the NTC, an unelected gathering of Gadafy opponents which won international recognition as Libya's legitimate government, Mr Keib has another two weeks to form his transitional government.
The administration should organise an election in the first half of next year to an assembly that will draft a constitution.
With vast oil and gas reserves and a relatively small population, Libya has the potential to become a prosperous nation, but regional rivalries pent up during Gadafy's 42 years of one-man rule could descend into a cycle of revenge.
Mr Keib will have to rein in the armed militias that sprang up in towns across the sprawling, thinly populated country to overthrow Gadafy and reconcile those remaining loyal to the old rule while brokering a new system to govern the country.
"This transition period has its own challenges. One thing we will be doing is working very closely with the NTC and listening to the Libyan people," Mr Keib said.
An academic and a businessman, Mr Keib has spent much of his life outside Libya, studying in the United States before taking up academic posts there and in the United Arab Emirates.
While Western powers' military backing, which formally ended at midnight yesterday, was vital to rebels' overthrow of Gadafy in August, Qatar and the UAE provided important Arab diplomatic and military elements. Some analysts believe Libya could now see those foreign allies competing for influence.
NTC members, as well as former students from his days teaching at Tripoli University in the 1970s, described Mr Keib as "quiet and friendly" and said he had helped with the financing of the revolt against Gadafy.
The prime minister said he expected to choose his cabinet ministers within the two weeks set by the NTC timetable.
Mr Keib did not set out any specific plans for the coming months, but said that worries over foreign oil contracts were unfounded. "We understand that we had 42 years with a brutal dictator ... concerns are in order. But there should be none of them," he said. "We demand respect for our national rights."
Interim oil minister Ali Tarhouni, also a dissident academic returned from the United States, had been among the favourites named by observers to become prime minister. But he received only three votes, highlighting the unpredictable nature of the emerging politics in the North African state.
Reuters