Kyrgyzstan's newly elected Parliament on Monday appointed Kurmanbek Bakiyev as prime minister of the central Asian state.

Bakiyev, once served as prime minister under the presidency of Askar Akayev who fled the country last Thursday and now stays in Russia, was approved with 54 out of a total of 56 votes.

As one of the opposition leaders in the election-triggered nation-wide protests in the past month, he vowed to form a cabinet quickly and thanked the new parliament for electing him to the post.

On the legitimacy of the new parliament, he urged a peaceful settlement of the current political crisis and asked the outgoing parliament to step away, saying that evidence he got suggested that only 20 out of 75 total constituencies nationwide were registered with malpractice in the disputed parliamentary elections on February 27 and March 13.

He also called on voters and political parties to accept the new parliament as a legitimate legislature as this will be "in the interest of the whole nation."

The new prime minister said current political crisis can only be lessened if Akayev returns to Kyrgyzstan voluntarily and gives up his presidential power.

A Russian delegation is due to arrive in Bishkek on Wednesday, he said, and Kyrgyzstan will ask Russia for fuel and equipment assistance so as to ensure the normal operation of the country's farming sector in the spring.

Bakiyev was elected acting president and prime minister on March 24 by the old parliament following the ouster of Akayev.

He served as prime minister in December 2000, but was forced to resign in May 2002 after taking responsibility for a deadly clash between police and protesters in the south of the country.

But 54 new lawmakers, elected in the disputed February and March parliamentary polls, were sworn in Sunday after the Constitutional Court overturned the Supreme Court's decision and threw its weight behind the new parliament.

With two parliaments vying for legitimacy in the past days, there were always questions on whether the old parliament's nomination of Bakiyev gave him a legal mandate, and hence guaranteed the legitimacy of the acting cabinet Bakiyev named.

Kyrgyzstan's outgoing parliament agreed Monday to cede power to a new assembly in a bid to resolve a crisis left by the ouster of Akayev by opposition supporters.

The chief of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Jan Kubis, is currently in Bishkek to mediate among different political forces. He is to meet with the interim leaders, including Bakiyev, to discuss the situation.

The disputed parliamentary elections on February 27 and March 13 triggered wide-spread protests across the country. Opposition supporters stormed the main government building in Bishkek Thursday, forcing Akayev to flee the country.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2005)