SWEDEN. Carlsson takes over as premier

Parliament elected Social Democrat Ingvar Carlsson to succeed assassinated Prime Minister Olof Palme last week without any opposing votes. Non-socialist parties, which form a minority in the Riksdag, or parliament, abstained in the March 12 proceeding, making a gesture of support for Mr. Carlsson's succession while declining to endorse his party's politics.

Carlsson was approved with 178 supporting votes and 159 abstentions.

The lanky, bespectacled Carlsson, head of an emergency caretaker government since Mr. Palme was assassinated Feb. 28, gave no election speech.

Palme was shot in the back after he and his wife, Lisbet, left a movie theater in central Stockholm. He had given his bodyguards the day off.

The Swedish police, who have engaged in the biggest manhunt in Swedish history, said they are considering, as one of many theories, the possibility that the killer has taken refuge in an embassy in Stockholm.

``We hold all roads open, including this one,'' police Commissioner Hans Holmer said at a news conference March 11.

Mr. Holmer said the Foreign Ministry and diplomat Sverker Astrom, serving as investigative liaison with other countries, had helped police make ``an analysis on the intelligence angle, which is interesting, but I cannot divulge anything on this particular point.''