DUBAI - Kuwait formed a new government on Sunday naming Saad Al Barrak as oil minister to replace Bader Al-Mulla and reappointing Finance Minister Manaf Abdulaziz Al Hajri.

Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who was re-appointed as prime minister last week, formed the new cabinet announced in a decree carried by the state news agency KUNA.

The Gulf Arab state also named a new defence minister, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah.

The outgoing government had resigned following parliamentary elections held earlier this month in the Gulf OPEC oil producer.

Kuwait holds some of the world's largest oil reserves and has strong fiscal and external balance sheets, but political bickering and institutional gridlock have hampered investment and reforms aimed at reducing its heavy reliance on oil revenues.

(Reporting By Andrew Mills and Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Andrew Mills; Editing by Andrew Heavens and David Evans)