BEIRUT (REUTERS) - Syria's President Bashar al-Assad tasked the country's Electricity Minister Emad Khamis with forming a new government on Wednesday (June 22), state news agency Sana reported, without giving any immediate reason for the formation of a new Cabinet.

Sana gave no details on why Mr Khamis would replace Mr Wael al-Halaki as prime minister, or whether Mr Halaki would be included in the new administration or had left government. Mr Halaki himself replaced a prime minister who defected to the opposition.

The Damascus-based government controls most of the war-torn country's major population centres in the west, with the notable exceptions of Idlib, which is held by insurgents, and Aleppo, where it controls half of the city.

Kurdish forces are in control of vast areas along the Turkish border, and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) holds Raqqa and Deir al-Zor provinces in the east.

Parliamentary elections were held in government-controlled areas in April, which the opposition said were meaningless.

Syria's conflict, which began as a peaceful uprising against Mr Assad, is now in its sixth year and has drawn in military involvement from regional and world powers and allowed for the growth of ISIS.

Damascus formed a new government more than a year into the war in 2012, but its prime minister at the time, Mr Riad Hijab, fled Syria soon afterwards. Mr Hijab is now a prominent member of the main Syrian opposition that attended failed peace talks this year.

Assad ally Russia said last week there were United States proposals to incorporate parts of the opposition into the current Syrian government. Washington denied any such proposals and insists Mr Assad must leave power.

The war has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced more than 11 million, half Syria's pre-war population.

It has damaged the economy, causing the Syrian pound to lose more than 90 per cent of its value.