COLOMBO: Veteran politician Dinesh Gunawardena took over as Sri Lanka's prime minister on Friday as President Ranil Wickremesinghe swore in his new cabinet.
Gunawardena, 73, a strongman in Sri Lankan politics, has previously served as foreign minister and education minister.
In April, then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him as Home Minister.
Wickremesinghe, 73, was sworn in as the country's eighth president on Thursday after Gotabaya Rajapakse left the country and resigned as president, and the post of the prime minister fell vacant.
He has called for bipartisanship to resolve the unprecedented economic crisis crippling the country.
With PTI inputs