Dhaka  - Bangladesh's President Iajuddin Ahmed Tuesday appointed Awami League (AL) leader Sheikh Hasina Wazed as prime minister of the country for a five-year term, officials said.

Hasina, 61, whose AL-led alliance won a crushing victory in the December 29 general elections, was sworn in as the 12th premier of the country.

It is her second term in office as prime minister.

The newly appointed premier reiterated her pledges to lower the prices of essential commodities and improve law and order on an urgent basis.

"People have voted for us with great expectation, we'll have to meet it," Hasina told reporters shortly after taking the prime ministerial oath, which was administered by Iajuddin at the Bangababhan presidential palace in the evening.

Leaders of several political parties, former ministers, judges, diplomats, civil and military bureaucrats and the country's elites attended the swearing-in ceremony.

No representative of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance headed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia were present.

The president also administered the oath to the new government's 32-member cabinet. The portfolios of the cabinet ministers, however, have yet to be distributed.

The ministers were drawn mainly from the Awami League, but alliance partners were also given a some ministries.

The December 29 elections were held about two years after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government of Khaleda Zia had left power.

The country had been run by the military-backed interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed, installed after the promulgation of the state of emergency against the backdrop of political turmoil in early 2007.

The elections were originally scheduled for January 22, 2007. Hasina's alliance won a landslide victory in the polls bagging 262 out of the 299 parliamentary seats. (dpa)