Moscoso will preside over the total transfer of the canal to Panama on Dec.
                  31, ending U.S. control of the strategic waterway. The transfer will be the
                  final act in compliance with Panama Canal Treaties signed by President
                  Jimmy Carter and military strongman Omar Torrijos in 1977.

                  "My government intends to increase the autonomy of the Canal so it may
                  operate without any partisan political influence," Moscoso told a cheering
                  crowd of 25,000 at the new baseball stadium. She was accompanied by her
                  8-year-old adopted son, Ricardo.

                  Since 1977, the United States has gradually turned over to Panama
                  thousands of acres (hectares) of land occupied by military bases and other
                  installations and the administration of the canal between the Atlantic and the
                  Pacific oceans.

                  Moscoso said Panama will ask the United States to turn over the occupied
                  areas free of "contamination problems" -- a reference to unexploded
                  ordnance on firing ranges. "They (The United States) are aware that this
                  problem must be resolved satisfactorily and my government will negotiate
                  toward this end."

                  On the domestic front, Moscoso, widow of the late populist leader Arnulfo
                  Arias, promised a "war on poverty and social injustice ... to turn Panama
                  into a country of opportunity for its children."

                  She won the election campaigning for change and promising special attention
                  to the poor, an echo of the slogans of her late husband, who was deposed
                  three times by the military partly because of his populist programs.

                  When the speech ended, Moscoso headed to the cemetery where Arias is
                  buried and was to drape the presidential sash over his grave.

                  "We are happy to see a woman come to power for the first time," said
                  Bertha Solis, an elementary school teacher cheering Mireya from the stadium
                  stands amid a sea of maroon, green and red flags of the Arnulfista party.
                  "She is a woman identified with Fufo (Arias), she is down-to-earth, sensitive
                  and ready to work."

                  "We like it that her government will be a social government," said Carlos
                  Rodriguez, a prep school student. "It is also nice that she will receive the
                  Canal."

                  Moscoso also pledged reforms of the health, judicial and education systems
                  and a permanent battle against corruption.

                  Outgoing president Ernesto Perez Balladares, who was legally barred from
                  seeking re-election, left an economy growing at 4 percent annually, a
                  network of modern highways and reforms to the labor laws aimed at wooing
                  foreign investment to Panama. But, to his last day in office, his administration
                  was tainted by scandals sparked by corruption at top levels.

                  Moscoso's inauguration ceremony was delayed for 31/2 hours by
                  last-minute negotiations to secure a 36-35 majority in the National
                  Assembly. That allowed the selection of a new assembly president, Enrique
                  Garrido, who swore in Moscoso.

                  On Monday, Moscoso's party had worked out a coalition with a minority
                  party, but a wavering member of that party needed some additional
                  convincing Wednesday morning.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.