Megawati moves into the palace

In her first day of work at the palace, Megawati met the U.S. ambassador

By staff and wires

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian leader Megawati Sukarnoputri has moved into her presidential office in the palace.

The new president is expected to name her coalition cabinet this week, more than two weeks after being sworn in.

But the delay in putting together an effective government has been causing some concern, reports CNN's Maria Ressa in Jakarta.

Megawati's move was initially delayed by former President Abdurrahman Wahid's refusal to quit the compound after he was ousted.

After calling the legislature's move illegal and unconstitutional, Wahid did leave three days later for medical treatment in the United States.

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But since then there has been some frantic jockeying for power by the disparate parties that helped Megawati replace Wahid less than two years into his five year term.

And while Wahid's team remains in place as a caretaker administration, they are not allowed to make any major decisions.

Financial markets, which originally welcomed her rise to power, are shuddering amid fears Megawati may not be able to control the fragile opposition, says Ressa.

"She is keen to get it right first time," Ressa says, explaining Megawati's lack of urgency in such a critical time.

Reluctant

But Megawati, the 54-year-old daughter of Indonesia's founding president, has also shown no hurry to return to the place where she grew up.

She has already ruled out living in the palace where she spent several years as a child before her father was ousted by General Suharto in the mid-1960s.

Instead she is due to move into a renovated museum that once housed souvenirs at the sprawling Dutch colonial complex in central Jakarta.

The palace fronts the Merdeka (Freedom) Square and the national monument erected by her father, Sukarno.

One of Megawati's first moves on Monday was to tighten already cumbersome restrictions on media coverage at the palace.

She declined to speak to reporters as she drove up for her first day at the new office.

But she did meet U.S. ambassador Robert Gelbard along with heads of the state food regulator and the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.