The new president of Guatemala, Alfonso Portillo, has taken office with a promise to fulfill the peace accords that ended the civil war four years ago.

At a ceremony in the capital, Mr Portillo, who won an overwhelming victory in last month's elections, said his priority would be to reform the powerful armed forces and solve the killing of a prominent Roman Catholic bishop two years ago. He said he would disband the elite presidential guard implicated in human rights abuses and change the law to allow the appointment of a civilian defence minister. A BBC correspondent in the region says that despite reassurances from Mr Portillo, concerns remain that his government could come under the influence of his political mentor, the country's former military ruler, Efrain Rios Montt.

Mr Rios Montt -- now the president of congress -- presided over some of the worst atrocities of the civil war , in which more than two-hundred-thousand people were killed.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service