SM Krishna, former governor of Maharashtra, will handle the external affairs portfolio in the new Manmohan Singh ministry while Pranab Mukherjee, who handled the additional portfolio of finance towards the fag end of the previous ministry's term, will continue to hold the portfolio in the new ministry as well.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will replace Laloo Prasad as the new railway minister.

P Chidambaram, who handled the home ministry after the exit of Shivraj Patil from the previous ministry will continue to hold charge of the ministry.  AK Antony will continue as the defence minister.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar has also retained the agriculture, food and civil supplies, consumer affairs and public distribution  portfolio.

The prime minister will hold the charge of all the other ministries till finalisation of seat-sharing at the UPA level, it is learnt.

The decision to allocate the six portfolios was announced after the new union cabinet met at  7 Race Course Road - the PM's residence.

The meeting decided to recommend to the president the convening of the first session of the 15th Lok Sabha from 1 to 9 June.

The Parliament session will begin with the swearing-in of the newly elected Lok Sabha members and will have seven sittings. The speaker is due to be elected on the third day of the session. The president is due to address the joint session of Parliament in Central Hall on the fourth day of the session. The motion of thanks on the President's address is likely to be taken up on fifth, eighth and ninth June after which the session will conclude.

Besides the six, the 19-member cabinet include S Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, Vayalar Ravi, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Veerappa Moily, CP Joshi,  Anand Sharma and BK Handique.

Meanwhile, the row over portfolios for the DMK members is reported to have been almost solved and it is likely that more ministers will take oath on the opening day of Parliament.