Abhisit promises 'competent' cabinet

New premier Abhisit Vejjajiva on Wednesday promised to appoint a competent cabinet to lead the country out of crisis following months of protests.

Abhisit, who ended his Democrat Party's eight years in opposition with his appointment by parliament on Monday, also reaffirmed his commitment to stimulate the sluggish economy.

"I will do my best to put the right man on the right job," the 44-year-old Oxford University economics graduate told reporters.

"I want to reassure everyone that I will choose competent people to implement policies that are crucial to revive our country," he added.

His party won over enough lawmakers in a parliamentary vote to form a ruling coalition on Monday, two weeks after a court dissolved the ruling party loyal to ousted and now exiled premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Abhisit has said the cabinet posts would be divided between the Democrats and their smaller coalition partners, whose defection from the now-defunct People Power Party gave Abhisit his slim majority.

The British-born premier, a former economics lecturer, is to be given his official decree to govern by Thailand's widely revered king later Wednesday.

Monday's vote followed six months of disruptive and at times bloody protests by the royalist, anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), peaking with the siege of Bangkok's two airports late last month.