(MADRID) - Spain's foreign ministry Tuesday announced the appointment of an experienced politician, Diego Lopez Garrido, as the country's new secretary of state for the European Union.

Lopez Garrido, 60, who served as Socialist Party spokesman in the lower house of parliament in the last legislature, replaces Alberto Navarro, a career diplomat.

He takes over ahead of Spain's presidency of the EU in the first half of 2010.

The foreign ministry also announced that the secretary of state for foreign affairs, Bernardino Leon, has left the post to become to join Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's inner circle.

Leon's successor as the number two in the foreign ministry will be announced in the coming days, the ministry said in a statement.

Zapatero, who was re-elected to a second term on March 9, announced his 17-member cabinet on Saturday in which most of the senior members, including Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, kept their jobs.

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