Female premier to head Greenland

Aleqa Hammond on Tuesday became the first female premier of Greenland, at the helm of a coalition government, dpa reported. The 47-year-old Siumut party leader would also handle foreign affairs, the Greenland newspaper Sermitsiaq reported. Siumut, a social democratic party, was to take charge of six of eight cabinet portfolios including finance, fisheries, education and natural resources. Siumut won 14 seats in the March 12 general election, while the junior partners - the conservative Atassut and the newly formed Inuit Party - had two each, sufficient for a majority in the 31-seat legislature. Atassut would handle health and infrastructure while the Inuit Party would take charge of the environment. The new government was to be formally sworn in April 5 when the new parliament convenes. The sparsely populated island of 57,000 people has a large degree of autonomy. Denmark remains in charge of foreign affairs, defence and monetary policy. Local politicians want to diversify the island's revenue streams by exploiting what have been presented as promising finds of rare earth minerals, iron ore and gold as well as oil and gas. Curently, Greenland's economy relies on fishing and Danish subsidies worth about 3.2 billion kroner (558 million dollars) a year.