Sri Lanka's president kept three portfolios including defence when the island's cabinet was named on Saturday, concentrating her power after saying she would also take charge of restarting a peace bid with Tamil rebels.
Chandrika Kumaratunga, who takes a hard line on the rebel group that tried to kill her in a suicide bomb attack in 1999, said she wants to resume efforts to end 20 years of civil war, though talk of peace has been overshadowed by clashes between Tiger factions.
"The ministries of Defence, Constitutional Affairs and Education will come under the purview of the president herself," Kumaratunga's office said in a statement.
She had also been expected to keep the Finance Ministry, but that went to Sarath Amunugama, a party stalwart analysts said could be a balancing force between Kumaratunga's wing of the Freedom Alliance and that led by the leftist People's Liberation Front (JVP).
"I think he could play a balanced role. Policy-wise it could be much the same (as the old government) except on the privatisations," said Hasitha Premaratne, an analyst at HNB Stockbrokers.
Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe pursued a policy of privatising state assets to boost government revenue, but the Freedom Alliance campaigned against that.
Wickremesinghe also took a more conciliatory approach to talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but that is likely to change with Kumaratunga at the helm, along with her adviser Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was named foreign minister.
From the minority Tamil community, he held the post earlier and earned the wrath of the rebels for his role in having them banned as a terrorist group in several foreign countries.
Kumaratunga has held the defence ministry since she seized it last November after accusing Wickremesinghe of compromising security by conceding too much to the Tigers.
Saturday's swearing-in also underlined differences within the Freedom Alliance coalition that could complicate the peace bid, with the JVP - a Sinhala nationalist party that opposes power-sharing with the rebels - missing the event.
The president's office said that was because they were attending a ceremony to commemorate those who died during Marxist insurrections they led before joining mainstream politics, but there was speculation it was due to ongoing haggling over posts.
Four ministries - agriculture, rural development, cultural affairs and fisheries - have been left open for them, and officials said they would be sworn in within the next few days.
EAST REMAINS VOLATILE: Sri Lanka's east remained volatile on Saturday with unconfirmed reports of fresh clashes between rival Tamil Tiger factions, a day after the worst fighting since a two-year truce halted the island's civil war.
Officials said the death toll in Friday's violence could be triple initial reports, and thousands of frightened civilians were holed up in schools after fleeing the clashes the government said were a violation of the February 2002 cease-fire.
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