Koirala garnered 144 votes in the 205-seat lower house, 41 more than needed to win a vote of confidence, with four opposed and 54 members of the opposition abstained from voting.

The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist, CPN-UML) and the newly formed National Democratic Party (NDP), led by fromer Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, threw their weight behind the Premier as they had promised. The Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) led by former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa with 11 seats and the opposition Communist-Marxist-Leninist (ML) party controlling 40 votes abstained.

``I declare that the motion tabled by Prime Minister Koirala has been passed,'' said Ramachandra Poudel, speaker of the house of representatives.

Soon after the voting Koirala, the fifthprime minister of this tiny Himalayan kingdom in just over three years, thanked the CPN-UML and NDP lawmakers for supporting his government.

He told newsmen later that he would resolve through consensus the country's economic problem and fiscal imbalances resulting from a series of unstable governments in the past.

The government took office on Wednesday comprising only Prime Minister Koirla, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Water Resources Shailaja Acharya and Finance Minister Ram Saran Mahat. Koirala, head of the Centrist Congress party replaced Surya Bahadur Thapa after Thapa resigned on April 10 under a power-sharing agreement with the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the house with 87 MPs.

Nepal's King Birendra appointed Koirala to head the minority government after political parties failed to cobble alliance in the hung parliament.