Four new ministers and their deputies from the main partner of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) were sworn in Wednesday by President Chandrika Kumaratunga at the President's House in capital Colombo,the president's office said.

The four ministers include Anura Dissanayake, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, Vijitha Herath, Minister of Cultural Affairs and National Heritages, K.D. Lal Kantha, Minister of Small and Rural Industries, and Chandrasena Wijesinghe, Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Their respective deputies are Bimal Ratnayake, Samantha Vidyaratne, Sunil Handunnetti and Nihal Galappathy.

The main partners in the ruling UPFA, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the main leftist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, reached a compromise on Monday over the allocation of subjects under the ministries of the new government formed after the parliamentary election on April 2.

The swearing in of the new ministers have ended a cabinet crisis since April 10 when the bulk of 31 ministers and some of their deputies in the cabinet were sworn in which was boycotted byJVP.

The JVP was allocated four ministries under the agreement between the two parties when they forged the UPFA on Jan. 20 and the party insisted on the subject of the agri-based development connected with the country's largest river the Mahaweli.

However, President Chandrika Kumaratunga was not willing to hand over the subject to the JVP.

The UPFA, a minority government with just 106 seats in the 225-member parliament, suffered a serious reversal last week when its nominee for the post of parliament speaker was defeated by the joint opposition candidate.

Former Minister of Justice, Law Reform and National Integration W.J.M. Lokubandara was elected on Thursday the new parliament speaker with the majority of a solitary vote.

Source: Xinhua