Islamist Mohammed Morsi was sworn in Saturday as Egypt's first freely elected civilian president, pledging to restore the rule of law, DPA reported.
He said in his inaugural address that he would seek to enhance the independence of the judiciary and allow justice to prevail in Egypt, where human rights abuses were common under the 30-year rule of Hosny Mubarak.
"We are initiating a new stage and closing a hateful page," Morsi said in his address at Cairo University. "Egypt will not go back."
Morsi, who ran as a candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, promised that the new constitution would respect the rights of all Egyptians.
"The constitution will unleash the freedom of thought, expression and creativity," Morsi told his audience, who included the ruling generals, politicians and foreign diplomats.
"This constitution will place Egypt at the forefront of countries and will make the ruler a servant for the people," he added.
An assembly picked by the now-disbanded parliament is drafting a new constitution, to be put to public vote later this year.
Later in the day, Morsi attended a military ceremony marking what state television described as the handover of power from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to the new president.
"I am accepting power transfer from the Field Marshal (Hussein Tantawi, the SCAF leader) and the army commanders to be responsible for them as I am responsible for the Egyptian people," Morsi, an engineering professor, told the ceremony in a military area outside Cairo.
He vowed to keep the army's rights intact and said the SCAF had transferred power "willingly."
However, he said the army would temporarily continue to help the police in maintaining domestic security.
The SCAF took over after Mubarak's overthrow last year, and was recently criticized for expanding its powers in a temporary constitution and weakening the presidential post.
Tantawi served as Mubarak's defence minister and is also expected to hold that post in the new government. Egypt's last four presidents had previously been army officers.
Morsi, 60, took the official oath before the country's highest court, the Supreme Constitutional Court.
On Friday, he took a symbolic oath in Tahrir Square, in a gesture to supporters who had wanted him to be sworn in before parliament. The court dissolved the Islamist-led parliament earlier this month after it found the electoral law unconstitutional.
The court building is situated near the military hospital where Mubarak is receiving medical treatment, after his health reportedly worsened in prison earlier this month. Mubarak is serving a life sentence.
Meanwhile, Morsi said that Egypt "will not export its revolution" - a remark aimed at the Gulf monarchies, where there are concerns over Islamists' rise to power in the Arab world's most populous country.
He pledged support for the Palestinian cause.
"Egypt, the state, the people, the government and the presidency, is supporting the Palestinian people until they regain all their legitimate rights," he said in the address.
He said that Egypt would pursue efforts to end a rift between the rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip that borders Egypt, is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Morsi renewed his administration's commitment to Egypt's international agreements, implicitly referring to a peace treaty signed with Israel in 1979.
He also pledged endeavours to attract foreign investment to an economy hurt by the turmoil that followed the revolt against Mubarak. "We badly need to remove the effects of chaos in all domains, mainly in the economy," he said.
Morsi was declared president last week after winning around 52 per cent of the vote in the June 16-17 presidential runoff, beating Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister and a former army general.
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