Sri Lanka's new president on Wednesday set up a 25-member cabinet which excluded hard-line allies from the Marxist and Buddhist monks' parties in a move analysts said could trigger a snap poll.
President Mahinda Rajapakse retained the defence portfolio as required by the constitution and also kept the finance ministry, as most of his predecessors have done.
No posts were given to the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, or to the all-monks JHU, or National Heritage Party. The two nationalist parties were key allies of Rajapakse in last Thursday's election which he narrowly won.
The JVP quit the previous government in June after falling out with then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga over proposals to share tsunami aid with Tamil Tiger rebels. It supported Rajapakse's bid for president.
Political sources said squabbling for top jobs in cabinet delayed the swearing in of the new government, originally scheduled for Monday to coincide with the induction of Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake.
The appointment of Wickremanayake raised concern among some analysts about the prospects for a cease-fire in place since 2002 with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
The ethnic war has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.
There was no official explanation of why the JVP was kept out of cabinet, but a senior minister who declined to be named said there were differences with the Marxists on the appointments.
The all-monks party said it had not expected any cabinet posts but would support Rajapakse in parliament.
The JHU insists that Rajapakse drop plans for a federal state in exchange for ethnic peace in the troubled island where more than 190 people were killed this year in violence linked to the conflict despite a 2002 ceasefire.