Members of Kenya's new cabinet have been urged to make the fight against corruption their main task after their swearing in ceremony.

But a problem has already emerged with 25 MPs from within the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc), which romped to victory in the 27 December presidential and parliamentary elections, saying a power-sharing agreement had been broken.

Kenya now has a number of female ministers

The members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) say that under the terms of the pre-election agreement, President Mwai Kibaki had agreed to allocate their party half of the seats in the new cabinet.

But in fact, 15 seats went to the National Alliance Party of Kenya and only eight to the LDP.

The new cabinet was formally sworn in on Monday at a ceremony on the lawns of State House.

Nation building

In a brief speech, new President Mwai Kibaki told his new team to work to fulfil the promises given during the election campaign and tackle corruption, which was seen as one the chief reasons why the Kanu party was swept from office after ruling since independence

"In this nation, we all have enough natural resources, manpower, so we should endeavour to work together and develop this great nation," he said

"All Kenyans are hopeful that this new government will effectively build the nation," he added.

Newly appointed Finance Minister David Mwiraria promised to pursue those suspected of having committed financial crimes in the past.

Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka said he would make the improvement of Kenya's ties with other countries and aid donors his priority.

Parliament is due to convene on Thursday, with Narc planning to introduce a tough new anti-corruption body and give more details on how they will fund free primary school education.