BRUSSELS: A new European Commission headed by Portugal's Jose Manuel Barroso will finally take charge on Monday after winning votes from a large majority of European Union lawmakers and vowing to step up cooperation with a newly-assertive European Parliament.

A total of 449 Euro MPs voted in favour of the new commission line-up, 149 voted against and 82 abstained. The parliament has 732 members but not all lawmakers attended the session.

Mr Barroso will take over the reins of power from Italy's Romano Prodi who is heading home to lead a centre-left coalition against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The former Portuguese premier is moving into his plush 13th floor office in the Commission's renovated Berlaymont building three weeks later than scheduled.

The delay is the result of an exceptional standoff between the EU's three top institutions - the Commission, the Parliament and the EU Council, composed of national leaders.

The once-timid EU Parliament asserted its clout last month after its members effectively rejected Barroso's previous line-up of commissioners.

Euro MPs, especially socialists and liberal democrats, were adamant that Barroso must drop controversial Italian politician Rocco Buttiglione from his team after he described homosexuality as a sin.

Latvia's Ingrida Udre also ran into criticism as did Hungary's Laszlo Kovacs whose knowledge of energy issues - his designated portfolio - was described as unsatisfactory.

The Netherlands' Neelie Kroes was also in the firing line, with critics warning that her job as EU anti-cartel chief could lead to conflicts of interest given her links with big business.

Unsettled by the show of force by normally acquiescent Euro MPs, Barroso asked for a postponement of the parliamentary vote rather than face an embarrassing -- and unprecedented - defeat in the EU assembly.

The former Portuguese premier spent the next few weeks trying to persuade unpopular Commission nominees to withdraw - and fending off critics who said he had seriously underestimated the growing clout of the Parliament.

LBarroso's new line-up includes former Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini, replacing Buttiglione, and Latvia's Andris Piebalgs, taking over from Udre.

Kovacs remains in the Commission but is now set to take charge of the tax portfolio while Piebalgs will deal with energy policy. Kroes will handle competition affairs but has promised to step aside when dealing with cases involving companies with which she has worked in the past.

Barroso said his revised cabinet of "strong, dynamic and professional" politicians was ready and impatient to start work. But the new Commission team cannot expect an easy ride from the Parliament.

Long derided as a "paper tiger", the EU assembly has clearly emerged strengthened from the three-week political standoff which pit it against the Commission but also against EU governments.

Under complex EU rules, the bloc's 25 leaders choose the men and women who join the European Commission but Barroso, as president of the executive only had the authority to dole out individual portfolios.

Explaining his predicament, Barroso compared his first meeting with many of his future team members to a "blind date." "This is a very complicated system, it is hard to work with," Barroso insisted, adding that in order to assert his authority, the head of the Commission must have the support of the Parliament but must also secure the "understanding" of EU leaders.

Many Euro MPs, however, are no longer in the mood to take instructions from their national governments. During the latest crisis, many lawmakers refused to heed their national leaders' last-minute appeals to approve the earlier Barroso line-up.

In a sign of more institutional clashes ahead, the EU assembly is also demanding much more from the Commission.