Nepal's parliament elected a Maoist leader as prime minister on Sunday after weeks of failure by lawmakers to form a national unity government that has threatened a fragile peace process in the nascent Himalayan republic.
The election of Baburam Bhattarai, a senior leader of the former rebels who waged an armed insurgency against the now-toppled monarchy, follows two years of turmoil in South Asia's poorest nation where Asian superpowers China and India jostle for influence.
Bhattarai faces the twin challenge of integrating and rehabilitating more than 19,000 former guerrillas and must oversee preparation of the first republican constitution, two major conditions of a 2006 peace deal which ended a decade-long civil war that killed 16,000 people.
"Completing the peace process and preparing the new constitution are my priorities. Number three is providing relief to the people," Bhattarai said after his election, his faced smeared with vermilion and marigold garlands around his neck.
His appointment is seen easing a political impasse in Nepal, which has struggled through two years of stalemate since the former rebels quit the government in a conflict with the president over the control of the national army.