Jenny Randerson AM: Re-shuffle benefactor

Labour local government sercretary Peter Law became the first casualty of the changes, with Edwina Hart taking over his role to become minister for finance and the communities.

The shake-up follows an overwhelming vote by the Lib Dems - the assembly's smallest party - to join the ruling minority Labour administration in a coalition.

The vote on Sunday was 130 for, 11 against with eight abstaining.

An agreement drawn up by the leaders of the two parties at the assembly won almost unanimous support of representatives at the Liberal Democrats' autumn conference in Wales.

Two seats in cabinet

Mr Morgan is expected to create the new cabinet posts of culture secretary and education secretary - the latter combining two previous education posts.

The Lib Dems are expected to be given two seats in the cabinet with their assembly leader Michael German becoming deputy first secretary.

The Lib Dems will also see more than 100 of their policies adopted.

Crucially, the deal will also give the minority Labour administration the stability it has lacked with poor performance at last year's first assembly election.

Mike German AM: Assembly deputy first minister role

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy welcomed the vote saying: "This is a good day for Wales, a good day for devolution and a good day for the Liberal Democrats."

Earlier Mr German apologised for holding discussions with Labour in secret.

In a 14-minute speech at the beginning of the party's debate on the agreement, he began by urging his party to have confidence in themselves and to vote for the partnership agreement with Labour

He said he was "worried about blowing it all out of the water by making it sound like a done deal before we'd even got a plan".

Holy Grail

He said the principle of devolution itself was at stake, as was the party's holy grail - PR at Westminster.

If the assembly continued as it was, stumbling from vote-to-vote, he added, people would lose faith in devolution and link that directly to proportional representation.

He said the agreement was about delivering Liberal Democrat policies and that that could only be done from inside the government.

While not all the delegates appeared to applaud the speech, there was a standing ovation from most.