Peruvian President Alan Garcia yesterday named Yehude Simon as new prime minister a day after the 13-member cabinet led by Jorge del Castillo resigned en masse over corruption allegations.

Four audio tapes emerged last Sunday linking members of the ruling party to a plan to steer lucrative petroleum contracts to a Norwegian oil company in exchange for bribes.

Following the scandal, the government fired Vice President Alberto Quimper of the state-owned petroleum company Petroperu and accepted the resignations of Energy Minister Juan Valdvia and the company's president Cesar Gutierrez.

Simon, 61, an independent leftist politician, is currently governor of the northern Lambayeque province. He was a lawmaker for the United Left party from 1985 to 1990 during Garcia's first administration.

He was jailed for eight years for alleged links to leftist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) guerrillas during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori.

He was pardoned in 2000 after Fujimori fled to Japan, and was elected governor of Lambayeque province in 2003.

Simon accepted the post, Garcia said, adding that one of the main tasks for the new cabinet will be to "absolutely eradicate corruption."