Sri Lanka\\\'s new leader purges Rajapakse placemen

COLOMBO, Jan 12 (AFP): Sri Lanka's new president has axed hundreds of officials and diplomats appointed by his predecessor as he prepares to form his new cabinet, a senior aide said Monday.

Lawmaker Rajitha Senaratne also said President Maithripala Sirisena would announce his cabinet later Monday.

"He has asked all political appointees of the former president to resign immediately," said Senaratne, adding politically appointed diplomats had been asked to return to the country.

"We are going to have a cabinet of 29 ministers," Senaratne told AFP.

Sirisena invited all parties to join his cabinet on Sunday, two days after ousting Sri Lanka's longtime leader Mahinda Rajapakse in a surprise election victory.

The new president quit Rajapakse's cabinet in November to emerge as an opposition unity candidate in the January 8 polls, triggering a mass defection of lawmakers.