TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A U.S.-educated engineering professor with little political experience is Libya’s new prime minister, a choice that suggests the country’s interim rulers may be trying to find a government leader palatable both to the West and to Libyans who distrust anyone connected to the former regime.

Abdurrahim el-Keib was chosen late Monday by Libya’s National Transitional Council, with 26 of 51 votes. He is to appoint within two weeks a new interim government that will pave the way for the drafting of a constitution, as well as general elections.

He replaces outgoing interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, who had pledged to step down after victory over Moammar Gadhafi’s regime

Jibril was increasingly embattled in his last months in office, attacked by Libya’s Islamists as too secular, and by others as a former Gadhafi regime adviser who spent most of the country’s 8-month civil war outside Libya while revolutionary forces were fighting Gadhafi’s troops on the battlefield.

Jibril has won credit, however, for his role in helping secure international support for the revolution from Western powers, such as France and Britain, who led the push to give the uprising the NATO air support that played a key role in Gadhafi’s defeat.