Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has appointed Mahinda Rajapakse as new prime minister after her party won Friday's parliamentary elections, presidential spokesman Janadasa Peiris said.  

Rajapakse, 59, was appointed opposition leader after President Kumaratunga's People's Alliance lost the December 2001 parliamentary elections to the now outgoing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party.

President Kumaratunga will swear in the new prime minister at the President's office later on Tuesday.

Kumaratunga's United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats in the 225-member parliament, eight short of an absolute majority to form a government of its own.

Kumaratunga dissolved the parliament on Feb. 7 and called the election to end a standoff with Wickremesinghe over peace process aimed at ending the country's two decades of ethnic conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

Kumaratunga has accused the Wickremesinghe government of making too many concessions to the LTTE rebels and jeopardizing the national security.

The president has said that she is committed to political settlement to the ethnic conflict and will resume peace talks with the Tamil rebels when her party comes to power.

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2004)