Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama has promised economic revival¹ and strong US ties, hours after taking office.

日本首相鸠山由纪夫就职几小时之后承诺加强经济复苏和与美国之间的联系。

Yukio Hatoyama's victory ended a half-century of LDP dominance

In a news conference, he vowed² to deliver a "people-oriented society", quick economic improvements and frank but trusting ties with Washington.

Mr Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan won a huge poll victory last month, ending 50 years of almost unbroken Liberal Democratic Party rule.

His untested（未试验的） government now controls the world's second biggest economy.

The new cabinet are due to be sworn in by Emperor Akihito later in the day.

Former DPJ leader Katsuya Okada becomes foreign minister and Hirohisa Fujii, a veteran bureaucrat³, takes over as finance minister.

Another former DPJ leader, Naoto Kan, will head a new National Strategy Bureau set up to oversee⁴ the bureaucracy. He also becomes deputy prime minister.

The defeated LDP, meanwhile, will hold an election later this month to choose its new leader, after former Prime Minister Taro⁵ Aso stepped down.

The DPJ has entered into a coalition⁶（合并，联合） deal with two smaller parties, the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party, and controls both houses of parliament.

Its priorities include tackling a rapidly ageing society and an economy still struggling after a brutal⁷ recession.

"We would like to carry out policies that will stimulate⁸ households so the Japanese people can have hopes for the future," Mr Hatoyama said.

He has promised to increase social welfare spending, cut government waste and rein⁹ in（严格控制） the powerful bureaucracy.

''Now is the time to practise politics that are not controlled by bureaucrats,'' he said.

On foreign policy, he said ties with the US were a priority.

But he said he wanted a relationship in which Japan "can act more proactively（前瞻性的） and tell them our opinions frankly¹⁰", adding that his party's position on reviewing deals relating to the US troop presence had not changed.

The DPJ was elected as a wave of discontent with LDP rule swept across Japan.

Opinion polls have shown many people did not vote for the DPJ because of their policies - but because they wanted change.

Analysts¹¹ say the electorate¹² will be watching the DPJ closely in the next few weeks and months to see if it can deliver.

The BBC's Roland Buerk, in Tokyo, says that in defeating the LDP, Yukio Hatoyama has already achieved what many people thought for years was impossible.

But now the really difficult part - governing Japan - begins, our correspondent says.