Finnish lawmakers appointed Anneli Jaatteenmaki the country's first female prime minister Tuesday, making Finland the only state in Europe with women as president and premier.

Jaatteenmaki was given the nod after leading her Center Party to a narrow win over the ruling Social Democrats in March 16 elections. Tarja Halonen was elected president in 2000.

Currently the speaker, Jaatteenmaki will step down Thursday when the new government is sworn in.

The prime minister bears most responsibility for running the government in Finland, with the president playing a far smaller role. Jaatteenmaki, 48, is a lawyer.

Halonen, the president, was a minister in three government, including a stint as foreign minister. She served in parliament for 21 years.

Finnish women have long had a powerful voice in Finnish politics. The country was the first in Europe to give women the right to vote in 1906. Seventy-five lawmakers in the new parliament are women, or 37.5 percent.

In 1990, Elisabeth Rehn was appointed defense minister - the first in the West, and four years later Riitta Uosukainen was elected as the first woman speaker of parliament.

In 1992, Sirkka Hamalainen became the country's first woman governor of the Bank of Finland, a post she held until 1998 when she joined the board of directors in the European Central Bank as its lone woman representative.