ter of continuing radical economic reforms and speeding up privatisation in the poor but strategic Caucasus country. Darbinyan's appointment had been widely expected. He had led the Finance and Economy Ministry since May 1997 under former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who resigned in February. Under the constitution, Darbinyan must now assemble a cabinet. Darbinyan's appointment needs no approval from the 190-member parliament. He must, however, submit an economic program to the body 20 days after naming a cabinet. It then votes on a confidence motion in the government and its program. If rejected, Kocharyan must name a new premier. Political observers see little probability of that happening since parliament is dominated by Kocharyan's supporters. Kocharyan, 43, was sworn in as the poor, landlocked former Soviet republic's second president on Thursday after winning a run-off election last month held to replace Ter-Petrosyan. Ter-Petrosyan resigned under pressure from opponents angry with his proposed concessions to Azerbaijan to try to end a decade-long dispute between the two countries over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ter-Petrosyan had argued that the landlocked country could not develop normally without ending the Karabakh conflict, which has cut off key trade routes through Azerbaijan and its ethnic kin Turkey, which have imposed trade embargoes upon Armenia. Both Kocharyan and Darbinyan insist that while the Karabakh question affects the economy in some ways, Armenia could still develop normally without its resolution and that the key to prosperity lies in carrying out more reforms. Darbinyan worked as a deputy chairman of the Central Bank from 1994 to 1997, when he was appointed to head the Finance and Economy Ministry. He speaks several foreign languages.