DHAKA:Sushil Koirala was sworn in as Nepal’s prime minister on Tuesday, after winning the backing of fellow legislators and tasked with steering the strife-torn Himalayan nation towards stability.

Koirala, head of the country’s biggest political party the Nepali Congress, took his oath before president Ram Baran Yadav during a ceremony at his office.

‘I, Sushil Koirala, in the name of God, pledge that I will be committed and honest to the nation and its people to fulfill my duty as prime minister,’ said Koirala, reading the oath, as officials and dignitaries looked on, reports The Straits Times.

On Monday, the silver-haired bachelor easily won a vote of legislators in the constituent assembly, which was elected last November in only the second national polls since the end of a civil war in 2006.

BDST: 1745 HRS, FEB 11, 2014