Conservative leader David Cameron has become Britain's youngest prime minister in almost 200 years, after Gordon Brown stepped down and ended 13 years of Labour government.
See Gordon Brown's resignation as prime minister on video here.
Mr Cameron, 43, visited Buckingham Palace on Tuesday and was asked to form a government by the Queen - less than an hour after Mr Brown tendered his resignation to the monarch.
Gordon Brown's resignation speech
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Mr Cameron beamed as he held hands with his pregnant wife, Samantha, outside the famous black door of 10 Downing Street.
Mr Cameron said he aimed to form a full coalition government between his Conseravtive party and the smaller Liberal Democratic party.
Cameron's Conservatives won the most seats and most votes in last Thursday's election but failed to secure an outright win. However, a coalition with the Liberal Democrats would have a parliamentary majority.
"I aim to form a proper and full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats," he told reporters.
"I believe that it the right way to provide this country with the strong, the stable, the good and decent government we need so badly."
He said he and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg were prepared to put aside party differences to work in the national interest.
"This is going to be hard and difficult work. A coalition will throw up all sorts of challenges. But I believe together we can provide that strong and stable government that our country needs," he said.
He also said the new government would have the task of rebuilding trust in the political system following a damaging parliamentary expenses scandal.
Mr Cameron also paid tribute to the outgoing Prime Minister Gordon Brown for his long years of public service and promised to take on the nation's "pressing problems", from the deficit, to the electoral and political system and social problems.
Mr Brown gave an emotional farewell speech flanked by his wife Sarah and with his children close by.
He said that it had been his fault - and his fault alone - that the Labour Party had not won a majority but that it had been "a privilege to serve".
"I loved the job not for its prestige, its titles and its ceremony - which I do not love at all. No, I loved the job for its potential to make this country I love fairer, more tolerant, more green, more democratic, more prosperous and more just - truly a greater Britain."
Mr Brown, who held hands with his two boys, Jon, 6 and Fraser, 3, said as he left Number 10 that this had been the "second most cherished job" of his life and that "husband and father" was first.
He shocked his party saying that he would immediately leave Parliament as well as the Prime Ministership, catapaulting his deputy, Harriet Harman, into the caretaker leader's role.
Coalition government
Mystery still surrounds the details of the alliance forged between the Tories and their new, centre left partners.
A senior Lib Dem MP told Sky News the deal will cover a full four-year term as a full meeting of the party, including MPs and peers, prepared to vote formally on the deal.
The only Cabinet position that appeared to be confirmed in the new government is that of the Chancellor, which will be taken by George Osborne.
Just how Mr Clegg and his team will be incorporated into the new Conservative line-up remains unknown.
The Lib Dems MP Simon Hughes said the party and the Conservatives had managed a "surprising coming together" in a "progressive arrangement", which meant people from the "radical centre-left of the party would be able to work with the Tories".
- with agencies
Source: The Canberra Times
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