LONDON - David Cameron, the youthful leader who modernized the party of right-wing icon Margaret Thatcher, became prime minister Tuesday after the resignation of Gordon Brown - capping a gripping election saga that returns the Tories to government after 13 years of Labour Party rule.
According to tradition, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Cameron at Buckingham Palace - the stately denouement to a behind-the-scenes dogfight between Cameron and Brown for the cooperation of Britain's third-place party, after an election that left no party with a majority.
Within minutes, Cameron was installed at No. 10 Downing Street, and an announcement followed that Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg would become deputy prime minister after days of hard bargaining with his former political rivals.
The 43-year-old Cameron becomes Britain's youngest prime minister in almost 200 years - the last was Lord Liverpool at 42 - and cemented a coalition deal with the third-place Liberal Democrats. Clegg and four other Liberal Democrats received Cabinet posts. A number of other Liberal Democrats would receive junior posts.
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The agreement, reached over five sometimes tense days of negotiation, delivered Britain's first full coalition government since World War II.
Cameron and Clegg agreed to a pact after the Conservative Party won the most seats in Britain's May 6 national election but fell short of winning a majority of seats in Parliament.
Cameron's Conservative Party said ex-leader William Hague will serve as foreign secretary, senior lawmaker George Osborne as treasury chief, and lawmaker Liam Fox as defense secretary.
Other leading positions were being finalized, as were key policy decisions ahead of the presentation of the coalition's first legislative program on May 25.
The coalition has already agreed on a five-year, fixed-term Parliament - the first time Britain has had the date of its next election decided in advance. Both sides have made compromise, and Cameron has promised Clegg a referendum on his key issue: reform of Britain's electoral system aimed at creating a more proportional system.
Arriving at London's Downing Street hand-in-hand with his wife, Samantha, Cameron said he believed that Britain's "best days lie ahead."
Britain's new government could spell changing relationships with its foreign allies.
Both Cameron and Clegg have signaled they favor looser ties to Washington. Both men back the Afghanistan mission, but Cameron hopes to withdraw British troops within five years. Clegg has said he's uneasy at a rising death toll.
President Obama telephoned to congratulate Cameron and invited him to visit Washington this summer, according to the White House. Obama told Cameron that he looked forward to meeting at an international economic summit to be held in Canada next month.
