"Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has been inaugurated as Croatia's first female president after a surprise election victory in the European Union's newest member state," the Associated Press said, adding that the inauguration was attended by dozens of regional leaders and foreign officials and thousands of her supporters.
The news agency noted that her election victory increased the chances of the opposition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party returning to power in parliamentary elections.
Reuters carried the part of Grabar-Kitarovic's inaugural speech in which she appealed for a "wide national consensus" to revive "the European Union member's battered economy".
The agency recalled that Grabar-Kitarovic won the presidential election in January "as a candidate for the conservative opposition HDZ party, pledging to prod the Social Democrat-led government into doing more for the economy, which has been in recession since 2009."
Agence France Presse noted that the new Croatian president called for national unity in a bid to revive the national economy. The agency said the inauguration was attended by hundreds of citizens and regional leaders, including Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
Russia's TASS news agency said the 46-year-old Grabar-Kitarovic was the youngest Croatian president and the first woman in that post. It noted that the event was attended by delegations of 88 countries and international organisations, stressing that special emphasis was placed on the presence of Serbian PM Vucic.
His arrival for the inauguration is considered as a friendly gesture showing that there is a wish for the normalisation of relations between the two countries, TASS said.