Zurab Abashidze, who served as Georgia’s ambassador to Russia before early 2004, has declined to take a post of a culture minister in a reshuffled cabinet.

He said that PM Grigol Mgaloblishvili had accepted his refusal “with understanding.”

Abashidze, however, also said that he had offered the PM his service in the Foreign Ministry, although no decision is yet taken on the matter.

Meanwhile, newly appointed Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze, said on December 5, that he had decided to appoint Georgia’s longest serving foreign minister, Irakli Menagarishvili, as “my, or the Foreign Ministry’s adviser.” Menagarishvili served as Georgia’s foreign minister under the ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze’s administration in 1995-2003.

In other developments, also related with the cabinet reshuffle, President Saakasvhili met with lawmakers from his ruling National Movement Party on December 6, to discuss among other things, the most recent changes in the government.