A senior Libyan military official on Thursday backed the appointment of little-known academic Abdurrahim al-Keib as interim prime minister to guide the country towards an elected civilian government after months of civil war.
Abdel Majid Mlegta, secretary general of the Libyan Revolutionary Battalion and a senior military official in the National Transitional Council (NTC), whose disparate forces toppled Muammar Gaddafi, welcomed the NTC's election of Keib.
Keib left Libya in the 1970s and joined the exiled opposition. He worked as professor of electrical engineering at the University of Alabama and also taught in the United Arab Emirates.
The stakes are high for Libya's new government, the subject of competing claims by groups of former rebels who are threatening to protest if they do not get adequate representation.
"We have great confidence in Dr Keib forming an interim government ... and that he will consider the right of representation of the revolutionaries," said Mlegta.
"We are have confidence in Keib's government's ability to represent this historic stage in leading Libya to the path of democracy."
Keib has said he expects to choose his cabinet within two weeks.