Sri Lanka cabinet finally sworn in

The two arch-rivals must now work together

A new cabinet has been sworn in in Sri Lanka after lengthy wrangling between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the new Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe.

The ceremony had been delayed chiefly because President Kumaratunga had been refusing to give up her portfolios for defence and finance.

Tose posts will now be held by members of Mr Wickramasinghe's United National Party.

Earlier, President Kumaratunga, who heads the rival People's Alliance, rejected offers of posts in the cabinet, fuelling fears of forthcoming political and constitutional clashes between her and the prime minister.

Sri Lanka has not had a president from one party and a prime minister from another since 1994.

'Work closely'

Mrs Kumaratunga's decision to give up the defence and finance portfolios followed two hours of talks with Mr Wickramasinghe on Tuesday.

Mourning a victim of the election violence

The General Secretary of the People's Alliance, former minister D M Jayaratne, told the BBC that the president had agreed to act in accordance with the constitution and had resolved the crisis by agreeing to work closely with the government.

But in the campaign for last week's parliamentary elections, President Kumaratunga said she would still run the country, whoever came to power.

Mr Wickramasinghe warned that the president would have to obey the will of the majority.

Peace hopes

Priyath Liyanage of the BBC's Sinhala service says the handing of the defence post to Tilak Marapone, a former attorney general and not a military man may indicate the new government's willingness to take a non-aggressive approach towards the ethnic problem which has ruined the economy.

The Sri Lankan Government spends more than $850m a year on the civil war against the Tamil Tigers, deploying more than 100,000 troops.

The cabinet swearing in came as two attacks by the Tigers on army and police camps left 25 people dead.

President Kumaratunga refused to swear in SB Dissanayake as the welfare minister, because of an inquiry into his activities as the welfare minister in the outgoing government.

Since Mr Dissanayake defected to the United National Front before the elections, he has been one of the president's fiercest critics.

Analysts say Mr Wickramasinghe's list of ministers looks like a compromise to please every faction of the United National Front.

It contains:

• 25 cabinet ministers
• 28 ministers without cabinet rank
• Nine deputy ministers
• 11 Muslims
• Four Tamils
• One woman

At least 60 people died during the campaign and on election day, making it the most violent election in Sri Lanka's history.