Italy's president Sergio Mattarella shakes hands with Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte during the sworn-in ceremony at the Quirinal palace in Rome, Italy, June 1, 2018.

ROME - The Italian government formed by newly-appointed Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was officially sworn in on Friday.

Conte was asked to form the government by President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday evening, after former PM-designate Carlo Cottarelli gave up on his mandate to assemble a technocrat cabinet.

Conte accepted the new mandate after anti-establishment Five star Movement (M5S) and far-right League -- the two most successful parties in March inconclusive elections -- agreed to renew their coalition consultations, following the failure of their previous bid for a cabinet also led by Conte.

The new government was sworn in at the presidential palace at 4 pm local time.

Key figures in the cabinet included M5S leader Luigi Di Maio as Economic Development and Labor Minister, and League leader Matteo Salvini as Interior Minister. Both will also serve in the role of vice prime ministers.

Crucial Economy and Finance Ministry was entrusted to Giovanni Tria, professor of Political Economy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, who is favorable to Italy's continued adherence to the euro-zone.

His nomination was the decisive turning point in M5S-League latest negotiations, since the president had nixed their previous nominee -- eurosceptic economist Paolo Savona -- as finance minister.

Savona would now serve as Minister for European Affairs in the new cabinet.

Enzo Moavero Milanesi, director of the School of Law at LUISS University in Rome, was sworn in as Foreign Affairs Minister.

Overall, Conte's cabinet comprised 18 ministers, plus Giancarlo Giorgetti -- considered as the right-hand man of League's leader Salvini -- in the influential role of Undersecretary for Prime Minister.