Turkmen acting leader sworn in as new president

ASHGABAT, Feb 14 (Reuters) Turkmenistan's acting leader, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, was today declared the winner of a February 11 election and immediately sworn in as the gas-rich nation's new president.

''According to the result of 89.23 per cent of all votes cast for him, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is elected president of Turkmenistan,'' Central Election Commission head Murad Karriyev told a session of the Central Asian state's People's Assembly.

Straight after the announcement, Berdymukhamedov was sworn in, his hand on Turkmenistan's constitution and flanked by soldiers with green flags and drawn swords.

The People's Assembly -- the nation's highest representative body bringing together hundreds of parliamentarians, ministers, regional heads and elders -- greeted the new leader with rapturous applause.

Ruled for two decades with an iron fist by Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in December, the country had sought to maintain a sense of mystery around who won the election, though it was almost certain to be acting leader Berdymukhamedov.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher were all in Ashgabat to hear the results in the company of hundreds of Turkmen village elders wearing big woolly telpek hats.

The election, described as ''not free and fair'' by the head of a group of parliamentarians from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe who watched the poll, is being seen by the West as a chance for gradual change.

Human rights groups and a leading international think tank have cautioned that Berdymukhamedov is a relative unknown and his prospective government should show progress on human rights and reform before being rewarded with trade and aid.

The election pitted the acting leader against five lower profile candidates from the nation's only legal political party.

The exiled opposition, many of whom are former ministers who fell out of Niyazov's favour, accused the West of tacitly accepting a new dictatorship in Turkmenistan in pursuit of gas.

Russia and its gas monopoly Gazprom are now the key benefactors of that natural gas, buying it at below-market prices as it flows down a Soviet-era pipeline. Iran also buys its gas through a smaller pipeline.

Energy-hungry China is pushing a plan to build a new pipeline towards its territory while Europe and the United States would like to see gas flow under the Caspian Sea towards Europe and bypassing Russia.

The list of other dignitaries due to attend the ceremony included Ismail Amat, a vice-chairman of China's parliament, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the leaders of Ukraine and Georgia, two states that buy Turkmen gas via Russia.

A Western diplomat in Ashgabat defended the policy of engagement, saying Western nations would want to see real progress on democracy and human rights.

''You can take an obese person and tell them that they need to lose weight,'' the diplomat said. ''Until you see the pounds coming off there's no proof they've absorbed the message ...

(but) a crash diet is bad, you're looking for sustainable change.'' REUTERS MS HS1114