Somare wins fourth term as PNG prime minister

PORT MORESBY, Aug 13 (Reuters) Papua New Guinea's parliament elected veteran leader Michael Somare as Prime Minister for a second consecutive five-year term today.

A coalition of parties led by Somare's National Alliance party secured 86 votes in the 109-seat Parliament, defeating a rival group led by former prime minister Julius Chan and Somare's former treasurer Bart Philemon.

Somare, 71, was Papua New Guinea's chief minister in 1972 and became the Pacific island nation's first prime minister at independence in 1975. He has now won the position four times.

His victory came six weeks after voting started in Papua New Guinea, a nation of about 6 million people with vast mineral resources but where most people live subsistence lives in villages.

REUTERS RJ HT0858