President Mahinda Rajapakse retained the defence portfolio as required by the constitution and also kept the finance ministry, as most of his predecessors have done.

No cabinet posts were given to the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, or to the all-monks JHU, or National Heritage Party. They were key allies of Rajapakse in last Thursday's presidential election which he narrowly won.

The JVP quit the previous government in June after falling out with then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga over proposals to share tsunami aid with Tamil Tiger rebels. It supported Rajapakse's candidature.

Political sources said squabbling for top jobs in cabinet delayed the swearing in of the new government, originally scheduled for Monday to coincide with the induction of Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake.

The appointment of Wickremanayake raised concern among some analysts about the prospects for a ceasefire in place since 2002 with separatist Tamil rebels.

The ethnic war has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.

There was no official explanation of why the JVP and the JHU were kept out of cabinet, but a senior minister who declined to be named said there were differences with the JVP on the appointments.

The all-monks party had previously said they may not take up cabinet posts but would support Rajapakse in parliament.

Kumaratunga's brother Anura Bandaranaike, who was earlier tipped to be the prime minister, was appointed tourism minister. His deputy will be Sri Lanka's world cup-winning cricket skipper Arjuna Ranatunga.

The foreign ministry went to Mangala Samaraweera, the top campaign manager for Rajapakse. Samaraweera will also be minister of ports and aviation.

A former media minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa got his old job back to head the Media and Information ministry.

Rajapakse appointed 18 non-cabinet rank ministers and another 29 junior ministers. He appointed two junior ministers to run the finance ministry but made no junior appointment to the defence ministry.

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