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Kabul: The Taliban announced Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund as the leader of its new government in Afghanistan on Tuesday. Chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also told a press conference that Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar will be the deputy leader.

Mullah Yaqub, the son of the Taliban founder and late supreme leader Mullah Omar, has been named defence minister, while the position of the interior minister was given to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the feared Haqqani network who also doubled up as a Taliban deputy leader.

"The cabinet is not complete, it is just acting," Mujahid said at the Government Information and Media Centre in Kabul.

However, the formation of the interim cabinet indicates that there could be no place for non-Taliban representatives in the new Afghanistan regime. Russia, which was one of the first countries to take a positive stance on the Taliban takeover, had earlier said that it saw "encouraging" signs from the Taliban in terms of including a government that includes other political forces and praising the Taliban's ability to "effectively ensure law and order".