Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson picked UN heavyweight Jan Eliasson as foreign minister today to replace a predecessor seen as an embarrassment to a government facing an election in six months.
Mr Eliasson, currently UN General Assembly chairman, could give the country a stronger voice in world affairs than Laila Freivalds, who resigned last week in a row over free speech. It was the second time she had quit.
"I expect that Jan Eliasson ... will further strengthen Sweden's prominent role in solving international conflicts," Mr Persson told a news conference.
Mr Persson said the career diplomat was "competent, internationally well-known, charming and above all analytical".
With its tradition of neutrality, Sweden has historically punched above its weight in international affairs. It has figured as a peace-broker in conflicts in Africa and the Middle East and now has troops in Afghanistan, Liberia and the Balkans.
Sweden remains a major donor of foreign aid, especially to the Palestinians, but in recent years its influence has declined and, in particular, it has toned down its anti-US rhetoric.
Mr Eliasson, however, said Sweden retained its power to influence and could speak "as a Nordic country, as a Baltic country, as an EU member and a member of the United Nations."
Sweden's challenges "coincide with those of the EU - enlargement, Turkey is a crucial issue and clearly we need to take the Middle East very seriously," he told journalists.
Mr Eliasson, a former ambassador to the United States, took part in a UN mission mediating in the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s with Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
Some believe he may pursue a more active line abroad. "Jan Eliasson worked closely with Olof Palme and many critics (of current policy) within the Social Democratic party have called for the kind of policies Olof Palme stood for," said politics professor Ulf Bjereld at Gothenburg University.
Mr Palme, shot dead in 1986, was very active in foreign affairs and highly critical of US involvement in Vietnam leading to a period of frosty relations beteen Washington and Stockholm.
Moderate party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt, who polls say could be Sweden's next prime minister, said Mr Eliasson, with his broad experience in Washington and New York, would bring "a more realistic and nuanced picture of the US".