El Salvador names new foreign minister

Marisol Argueta de Barillas, a lawyer and career diplomat, was named El Salvador's new foreign minister on Wednesday.

Francisco Lainez resigned from the job Tuesday to begin campaigning for president ahead of the country's March 2009 vote.

At her swearing-in ceremony, Salvadoran President Tony Saca said Argueta, who had been an adviser to Lainez, would continue working "to strengthen international relations, trade agreements and the commitment to thousands of Salvadorans living abroad."

Argueta, 39, studied diplomacy and international law at Oxford University and New York University. She has served as El Salvador's general director for foreign policy, the councilor minister at El Salvador's embassy in Washington.