TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- The moderate veteran politician Yasuo Fukuda easily won election as president of Japan's struggling ruling party on Sunday, assuring his selection as the new prime minister in a parliamentary vote later this week.
Fukuda, who served as chief Cabinet secretary from 2000 to 2004, has the support of the major factions of the LDP.
Fukuda won 330 votes to former Foreign Minister Taro Aso's 197 votes, the party announced.
Fukuda, 71, the son of a prime minister from the 1970s, has vowed to keep his country in the fight against terrorism, improve relations with Asia and address inequalities in the world's second-largest economy.
Fukuda vowed on Sunday to rebuild the popularity of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has suffered a year of scandals and policy missteps by outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been hospitalized since announcing on Sept. 12 that he would resign.
"It is natural that we are facing public criticism," Fukuda said in a joint appearance with his rival, Aso, on national broadcaster NHK. "We must make efforts patiently to regain public trust."
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/23/abe.hospital.ap/index.html
