Copenhagen - Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday concluded a cabinet reshuffle and presented the new ministers to Queen Margrethe.

The reshuffle was made after Lene Espersen was elected Tuesday as the new leader of the Conservative Party, the junior partner in Rasmussen's centre-right coalition.

Espersen, who has held the justice ministry portfolio since 2001, succeeds Bendt Bendtsen as deputy prime minister, and takes on his portfolio as economic and business affairs minister.

Rasmussen praised Bendtsen's efforts to help create "historically good ties" between his Liberal Party and the Conservatives that have been in office since 2001, and said he looked forward to continue this cooperation with Espersen.

Copenhagen - Danish Justice Minister Lene Espersen was elected on Tuesday as the new leader of the Conservative Party, the junior partner in Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's centre-right coalition.

Espersen, who has held the justice ministry portfolio since 2001, succeeds Bendt Bendtsen as deputy prime minister, and is to take on Bendtsen's portfolio as economic and business affairs minister.

Bendtsen, 54, announced he aims to run for the European Parliament next year.

Culture Minister Brian Mikkelsen is to succeed Espersen as justice minister.

Rasmussen said he was "confident" that Espersen, 42, and he would be able to cooperate well and backed her moves in the reshuffle.

Berlin - Environmentalists plan to continue their resistance to a mega-bridge crossing the strait between Denmark and Germany despite the signing of a treaty to forge ahead with the project, a nature-protection group, NABU, said Wednesday.

They fear migrating birds will thud into the towers of the 19- kilometre suspension bridge while the piers will slow the flow of water through the Fehmarn Belt into the Baltic Sea.

Replacing car ferries that depart half-hourly round the clock will take about an hour off the 4.5-hour, straight-line motorway drive from the Danish capital Copenhagen to the German city of Hamburg.

Copenhagen/Berlin - "The Fehmarn Strait bridge is coming," proclaimed German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, referring to a 19-kilometre Baltic Sea link between Germany and Denmark.

To make sure it does, Tiefensee is scheduled to travel to Copenhagen on Wednesday to ink the final agreement together with his Danish counterpart, Carina Christensen.

Copenhagen - One of two Tunisian nationals held on suspicion of planning to murder a Danish newspaper cartoonist has voluntarily left Denmark, his lawyer said Friday.

The two Tunisians were arrested in February after the Danish security and intelligence service PET said it had uncovered a plot to murder cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

Westergaard's controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban was one of 12 images published in September 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. They sparked worldwide violent protests in 2006 and Danish companies were boycotted in many Muslim countries.

The two suspects faced deportation to Tunisia as threats to state security.

Copenhagen - An Iraqi interpreter, who was recently granted asylum in Denmark, has opted to return to Iraq instead of divorcing one of his two wives, reports said Tuesday.

"It was a difficult decision for them, but now they have left to see how things are in Basra," lawyer Marianne Volund told the Nyhedsavisen newspaper.

The interpreter was among the 200 Iraqis including family members offered asylum when Denmark last year withdrew its troops from southern Iraq.

Iraqi interpreters and others who have served with foreign organizations or allied forces have often been targeted by militant groups.