A total of 63 Deputies voted against Primakov, who was nominated by President Boris Yeltsin yesterday to break a tense standoff with the Communist-dominated Lower House of Parliament.

The 68-year-old Primakov, who was serving as Russia's Foreign Minister, needed only 226 votes to secure confirmation in the 450-member House.

Today's confirmation is seen as a major step in ending the country's political crisis which sparked off with Yeltsin abruptly dismissing the Government of Sergei Kiriyenko last month.

The Duma twice rejected the President's initial choice, Victor Chernomyrdin, the Prime Minister from 1992 to March this year, whom they blamed for the sorry state of Russian economy.

A third rejection would have led to the dissolution of the Duma and a new wave of political turmoil.

The Primakov Government will inherit massive economic problems that followed theRouble's devaluation last month and panic buying that left many store shelves empty.

Meanwhile, the leader of Russia's Communist Party said after talks with Primakov that Primakov had promised to make a Communist his first deputy and a Soviet era banker the new Central Bank chief.

``We have agreed on two candidates -- Yuri Maslyukov and Viktor Gerashchenko,'' Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told reporters.