Thailand's first woman prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has left controversial leaders of the Red Shirt protest movement out of her first cabinet, avoiding political confrontation in the divided nation of 65 million.
The movement helped propel Ms Yingluck's Puea Thai party to a landslide victory at general elections last month.
Ms Yingluck elevated a former deputy defence minister, General Yuthasak Sasiprapa, to the key post of defence minister in a move seen as placating the armed forces which ousted her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, from power in a 2006 coup.
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Although General Yuthasak is seen as an ally of Mr Thaksin, he is expected to work well with the military's top brass, who have vowed not to undermine Ms Yingluck's six-party coalition government that will control three-fifths of parliament.
Thailand's business community has welcomed the appointment of the Finance Minister, Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala, a former general secretary of the financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A surprise appointment was the relatively unknown Puea Thai MP, Surapong Towichakchaikul, as foreign minister.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej has approved the appointments.
Ms Yingluck, a 44-year-old former businesswoman with less than three months of political experience, has steered clear of controversy and pledged to deliver on populist policies, including a sharp increase in the minimum wage, the construction of high-speed rail lines and providing free tablet computers to schoolchildren.
But her victory sharpened the divide between Thailand's rural and urban poor who support the Red Shirt movement and Bangkok's political and military elite.
One of her most difficult decisions will be whether to pardon Mr Thaksin on corruption charges, allowing him to return to Thailand from self-imposed exile in Dubai without having to serve two years in jail.
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