UPDATE 2-Pakistan assembly elects first woman speaker

(Updates with comment from new speaker)

By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD, March 19 (Reuters) - Pakistan's National Assembly elected its first woman speaker on Wednesday, a member of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which won elections last month.

Fehmida Mirza, 51, a medical doctor from a political family from Sindh province, defeated a candidate from the main party that backs President Pervez Musharraf by 249 votes to 70.

"We are starting a new chapter," Mirza told a news conference after presiding over her first assembly session.

She did not refer to a possible confrontation between a new coalition government and Musharraf but said Pakistan was engulfed with problems such as terrorism, and poor education and health.

"It is the need of the hour that all institutions work together, and all political parties and members of parliament should work to resolve the problems of the people," she said.

Mirza's husband is a former PPP member of parliament and a close friend of Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower who became co-chairman of her party after she was killed in a suicide attack on Dec. 27.

The PPP won the most seats in the Feb. 18 general election but not enough to rule alone. It has agreed to form a coalition with the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, which came second, and two smaller parties.