LIMA, Peru (Reuters) -- President Alberto Fujimori on Sunday named as
                  his new premier a lawyer best-known for defending Peru before the
                  hemisphere's top human rights court, which is locked in a dispute over the
                  Andean nation's poor record.

                  Alberto Bustamante's appointment as premier -- a post Fujimori has largely
                  reduced to that of policy spokesman -- gives the president an articulate
                  defender of his decision in July to withdraw from the Inter-American Human
                  Rights Court.

                  Amid wrangling over Peru's much-criticised military trials for guerrillas, the
                  court has rejected the withdrawal and continues to hold trials on alleged
                  rights abuses in Peru even though Fujimori is unlikely to obey its rulings.

                  Peru is the state with the most cases against it before the court -- the legal
                  arm of the Organisation of the American States.

                  Bustamante, 49, replaced Victor Joy Way as premier after the top Cabinet
                  official, who was also economy minister, resigned on Saturday to lead an
                  election campaign for Congress next April.

                  Fujimori said he expected to name an economy chief over the next few days
                  in a Cabinet shuffle involving several ministers.

                  "With Prime Minister Bustamante's Cabinet we aim to improve the economy
                  by maintaining stability and always looking for economic growth," Fujimori
                  told local radio reporters on a trip to the southern town of Ica.

                  GRANDSON OF FORMER PRESIDENT

                  Among other cases, Bustamante has represented Peru before the human
                  rights court over the ouster of constitutional court judges, who opposed
                  Fujimori's expected bid for a third term next April.

                  The new premier is the grandson of Jose Luis Bustamante -- Peru's
                  president from 1945 to 1948 -- and has married a former head of the
                  national coordinating body for human rights, which is an institution frequently
                  critical of the government.

                  "(His appointment) is a way of making sure the international human rights
                  chicken does not come home to roost," Mirko Lauer, a political analyst
                  writing in mainly opposition publications, told Reuters.

                  "He is very well respected. He has the capacity to defend Peru over human
                  rights issues in the international forum," he added.

                  Fujimori defied political analysts' predictions by overlooking
                  tried-and-trusted officials to select Bustamante as Cabinet chief for the last
                  six months of his term.

                  But with the president's reputation for allowing his ministers little
                  independence, the appointment is unlikely to see the government veer from
                  its strategy of combining investor-friendly policies with vote-winning populist
                  measures.

                  Most changes in this week's shuffle will attract little attention from investors,
                  but many Peru watchers are eager to see if Fujimori chooses an economy
                  minister who will maintain his long-established free-market policies.

                  While noting Fujimori often surprises those trying to second-guess him in his
                  frequent shuffles, most analysts have tipped privatization chief Gustavo
                  Caillaux to take the vacant post of economy minister.

                  Caillaux, who is also fisheries minister, is popular among businessmen and
                  familiar to foreign investors and International Monetary Fund officials, who
                  work closely with Peru on economic policy.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters.