The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail today opened the first meeting of the third session of the ninth parliament in a ceremony steeped in tradition.

According to Bernama, upon arrival at the Parliament House, the King and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Fauziah Tengku Abdul Rashid, were received by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his deputy Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor.

Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin then went up the special stage to take the royal salute and the Negara Ku was played.

He then inspected the guard-of-honour mounted by 104 men and four officers from the First Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment led by Major Norazizi Abdullah.

21-gun salute

While the King was reviewing the guard-of-honour, a 21-gun salute was fired by members of the 41 Artillery from the Sungai Besi Camp.

The King then returned to the special stage and took the royal salute followed by the rendition of the national anthem.

Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin and Tuanku Fauziah, accompanied by Abdullah and Najib, entered the Parliament building.

At 10.30am, the royal couple entered the Dewan Rakyat gallery, accompanied by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Ramli Ngah Talib.

Abdullah then presented the text of speech to the King to declare open the parliament session. urged the people to increase their potential to further strengthen the progress achieved so far.

In his speech, the King said noble values such as being clean from malpractices, honest, trustworthy, fair, ethical and people-friendly were vital qualities for the people to enhance self-esteem and character development to realise the vision of building a nation of excellence, glory and distinction.

He was confident the Ninth Malaysia Plan, to be tabled in Parliament by Abdullah on March 31, would accelerate the nation's economy towards achieving objectives of Vision 2020.

"I am sure the plan will provide the policies and strategies to strengthen our economic fundamentals to sustain growth and improve quality of life," he said.