The new SNP minority government will "work above party boundaries in the best interest of our country", Nicola Sturgeon has pledged.

The SNP leader vowed to find "common ground" with opposition parties on issues like education, the environment and the economy.

Sturgeon made the remarks as she introduced her party's new intake of MSPs at the iconic Kelpies in Falkirk on Saturday.

The SNP won 63 seats in Thursday's Holyrood election - more than the Conservatives and Labour combined.

However the party was unable to retain its overall majority from 2011 and has decided instead to govern as a minority administration, as Sturgeon announced outside Bute House on Friday.

Speaking at the Kelpies, the SNP leader said: "The government I lead will be open and it will be inclusive.

"It will be a government that reaches out and strives to find and to build on common ground.

"And I believe there is common ground to be found on education, on the economy, on the environment and I am sure on many other issues.

"That is my commitment, to work above party boundaries in the best interest of our country."

But Sturgeon also issued a word of warning to Scotland's opposition parties, saying: "I would also say this to the opposition parities, the SNP won the election.

"We won the election overwhelmingly, so yes we will compromise where that is in the best interests of our country but we have a clear and unequivocal mandate to implement the manifesto that we fought and won this election on.

"And we have the right to assert the values and positions set out in that manifesto."

Introducing the SNP's new MSPs, who will be sworn in next week, Sturgeon praised the group's diversity.

She said: "This is a group notable for its diversity. Different ages, different backgrounds, but I'm particularly pleased to say this is a group that has within it many more women than our last parliamentary group did.

"In the last Scottish Parliament group 27.5% were women. I'm proud to say that in today's group 43% are women. Not quite the gender balance I want to see, but certainly a significant step along the way."

Earlier on Saturday, Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson - whose party will be the official opposition in the next Scottish Parliament - said the SNP needed to be held "in check".

But she has also said the Conservatives will "work constructively where required".

Scottish Labour's Kezia Dugdale, whose party were consigned to third place on Thursday in its worst ever Holyrood showing, said the election result had been "heartbreaking" but pledged to continue "fighting for Labour values".

Willie Rennie of the Lib Dems said the "arrogant" SNP needed "a change of attitude", and agreed with the Tories that a second independence referendum should be "off the table".

The co-convener of the Greens Patrick Harvie said his party intended to push the SNP "beyond its comfort zone".

The SNP fell two seats short of a majority at the election, so votes from the Scottish Greens and Liberal Democrats could be key to passing laws.

The Greens won six seats, overtaking the Lib Dems as Holyrood's fourth largest party, who only won five seats.