Sri Lanka's new President Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday appointed former premier Ratnasiri Wickremanayake as the new prime minister, his office said.

Rajapakse, 60, who was sworn in Saturday, dropped previous plans to give the premiership to foreign minister Anura Bandaranaike, the brother of former president Chandrika Kumaratunga.

A government spokesman said the cabinet will be named either later Monday or Tuesday and only the new prime minister was sworn in on Monday amid lobbying for jobs by key politicians.

There were two front runners for the ceremonial post of prime minister - former public security minister Ratnasiri Wicremanayake and former posts minister D M Jayaratne. Wickremanayake, 73, is seen as a hawk who advocates a tough line against rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

He is also opposed to any concessions to the Tigers and had earlier wanted the majority Sinhalese Buddhists to have more children in order to increase the population and help fight the Tigers.