MOSCOW, May 25 (AFP) - President Boris Yeltsin signed decrees nominating 10 new ministers to the government of Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin Tuesday, state television reported. The most noted appointment was that of the former finance minister, Mikhail Zadornov, 36, to the post of first deputy prime minister with the huge task of finding a cure for the economy. The job was fought over during a week-long power struggle among Russia's financial and government elite. Stepashin, the new prime minister, had earlier favoured the Harvard-trained economist Alexander Zhukov for the post. Stepashin's right-hand man will remain Nikolai Aksyonenko, a little-known railways minister handed the industrial policy brief. It was nonetheless a victory for Stepashin who had insisted on a second first deputy to counterbalance the influence of the controversial tycoon Boris Berezovsky. The appointment ended a month-long political crisis that saw Yeltsin take the axe to his fourth cabinet in 14 months and parliament fail to impeach the president. Stepashin, who travelled to the Black Sea resort of Sochi to finalise his cabinet line-up with the president, conceded that the talks were not easy. "We really worked until late into the night and then again this morning," the former interior minister told Russian television. "We found it useful to be working in tandem -- Mikhail Zadornov in the government, Alexander Zhukov in the State Duma budget committee," Stepashin said. "They are like-minded people, brothers-in-arms in the good sense of that term. They are people who can contribute a lot and solve serious problems, including the budget and problems with the International Monetary Fund. "I think we found the ideal solution. The initiative was mine, and the president approved the decisions," he said. Zadornov, a former member of the liberal Yabloko faction in parliament where he chaired the budget committee, is the lone survivor of the economic team running the country at the time of last August's financial crisis. The intellectual economist was vilified by the leftists who dominate the Duma, the lower house of parliament, for the August 17 devaluation, debt default and economic collapse. His immediate task will be to guide through parliament a controversial loans-for-laws package demanded by the IMF in exchange for resumed financial assistance to Moscow. The funds are vital if Russia is to secure more credits, renegotiate its 141 billion-dollar foreign debt and avoid a generalised default on its liabilities which would make Moscow a pariah with international creditors. However, the austerity measures could have a tough time in a Duma facing elections in December and smarting from successive defeats by Yeltsin over the premiership and impeachment. The Duma's initial reaction to Zadornov's promotion were lukewarm. "The government is exactly the same as it was last September," said Yabloko faction leader Grigory Yavlinsky. "In other words, it is ineffectual." The Communist Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov added: "Unfortunately, I do not understand why they did not settle on Zhukov." Yeltsin also confirmed Valentina Matviyenko as deputy prime minister in charge of social affairs, while Vladimir Shcherbak was named deputy premier in charge of agriculture, an appointment which confirmed the departure of leftist Gennady Kulik. The new finance minister was Mikhail Kasyanov. Viktor Kalyuzhny took over the energy portfolio while Alexander Pochinok was appointed fiscal affairs minister. The completion of the major posts of the cabinet line-up came on the eve of a constitutional deadline Wednesday -- seven days after Duma deputies confirmed Stepashin in office. It followed several rounds of intense horse-trading attended by Kremlin chief of staff Alexander Voloshin and Aksyonenko. Voloshin and Aksyonenko are seen as allies of the arch-intriguer Berezovsky, the influential billionaire who tried frenetically to dissuade Yeltsin from naming a second lieutenant. As for other appointments, Yeltsin brought back ministers from the government of ex-Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. Yevgeny Adamov retained the atomic energy portfolio, Farid Gazizulin privatisations, Mikhail Kirpichnikov science and technology, Vladimir Filippov education, Vladimir Yegorov culture, Sergei Frank transport and Sergei Kalashnikov labour.  