DHAKA - Bangladesh has chosen figurehead President Iajuddin Ahmed, a respected academic with no political affiliation, to take additional charge of a caretaker administration until a new government is elected in January.

Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed sits before taking oath as head of the caretaker government in Dhaka October 29, 2006. Iajuddin must prove himself to be neutral before he can be accepted as the head of a caretaker government to steer the country through elections in January, opposition parties said on Monday. [Reuters]

The former professor of soil science at Dhaka University was appointed president in September 2002, largely because he was considered a neutral in a country of sharp political divisions and because of impeccable academic credentials.

He replaced former president A.Q.M. Badruddoza Chowdhury, who resigned over policy differences with then prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia.

Khaleda's five-year mandate ended on Saturday and she was to have been replaced by former Supreme Court chief justice K.M. Hasan until a general election in January.

But Hasan refused the job after the opposition League Awami League strongly protested, citing past affiliation with the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

At least 25 people were killed in three days of rioting by activists amid the political stalemate.

Iajuddin, 75, said he took over the caretaker administration for the sake of the nation, and promised to hold a free and fair election within the stipulated time and sought cooperation of all political parties in discharging his duties.

A quiet, soft-spoken man who underwent heart bypass surgery last May, Iajuddin is the author of around 125 research papers and has made a special study on the impact of salinity on the country's coastal paddy fields.

Opposition parties had accepted him in the largely ceremonial role as president. But on Sunday they refused to welcome him in his new job, saying his acceptability depended on his proving his neutrality.

Bangladesh introduced the caretaker system in 1991, following the fall of military ruler Hossain Moahmmad Ershad, to prevent ruling parties from rigging elections.

The system has worked generally well in three elections since then - although the losers have accused the interim authority of being unfair and often biased.

Iajuddin's wife Anwara Begum is vice-chancellor of the Atish Dipankar University in Dhaka. They have two daughters and a son.