Colombo: Sri Lanka's new President Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday appointed Sri Lanka Freedom Party stalwart Ratnasiri Wickremanayake as the Prime Minister.
Rajapakse, who was sworn in on Saturday, dropped previous plans to give the premiership to Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike, brother of former president Chandrika Kumaratunga.
Wickremanayake, 73, advocates a tough stand against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
He is also opposed to any concessions to the Tigers and had earlier wanted the majority Sinhalese Buddhists to have more children in order to increase the population and help fight the Tigers.
The other two front-runners for the post of prime minister were former public security minister Ratnasiri Wicremanayake and former minister DM Jayaratne.
Rajapakse will unveil his cabinet by Tuesday, aides said, playing down tough talk by the Tamil Tigers and seeking to reassure investors fleeing the Colombo bourse.
The Cabinet was dissolved when Rajapakse resigned from his post as prime minister on Saturday to be sworn in as president.
Rajapakse won Thursday's presidential election after the rebels boycotted his more conciliatory rival and scared ethnic Tamils in the north and east from voting.
But the Tigers have warned that negotiating peace with him is impossible.
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