A conservative-led government has taken power in Greece and promised to negotiate softer terms on its international bailout.
The swearing-in of Antonis Samaras as Prime Minister after Sunday’s election ended weeks of uncertainty that rattled financial markets and threatened to push near-bankrupt Greece out of the eurozone.
Mr Samaras, a Harvard-educated economist from a prominent Greek family, will head an alliance of his New Democracy party and Socialist Pasok rivals.
"I am fully aware how critical this time is for our nation," Mr Samaras said after he was sworn in at a ceremony conducted by Orthodox priests at the presidential mansion.
"I know very well that Greek people are hurt and need to regain their dignity. I know that the economy must quickly recover to re-establish social justice and cohesion."
The cabinet has yet to be named, although a technocrat banker is expected to become finance minister.
Party leaders said a team would be formed to renegotiate the terms of the €130bn rescue plan with the European Union and IMF, setting up a showdown with the lenders led by paymaster Germany who say they will adjust but not re-write the document.
New Democracy and Pasok have little history of cooperation, having alternated in office from the fall of military rule in 1974 until last year, when the economic crisis forced them to share power in a short-lived national unity government.
Their coalition will be the first in Greece in decades with an unrestricted mandate - last year's unity government and a coalition that took power in 1989 both had limited powers.
The alliance will also be backed by the small Democratic Left party, whose leader Fotis Kouvelis called on the government "to gradually disengage from the terms of the bailout that has bled society".
An official from one of the three parties in the coalition said that they had agreed to name National Bank Chairman Vassilis Rapanos as finance minister.
Mr Rapanos is an economics professor who worked closely on reforming the economy with a previous Socialist government.
Other ministers were expected to be named later.
