"This is a victory for people who hope for change and openness and reform," he told his jubilant Kuomintang (KMT) supporters after trouncing ruling party chief Frank Hsieh by almost 17 percentage points.

Soft-spoken and Harvard-educated, Ma has promised to work for closer ties with Beijing, including a peace treaty to end decades of hostilities, and to revive Taiwan's stuttering economy.

US President George W. Bush sent his congratulations to Ma, saying his win was a new chance for China and Taiwan to resolve their differences.

"I believe the election provides a fresh opportunity for both sides (China and Taiwan) to reach out and engage one another in peacefully resolving their differences," he added in a statement.

The vote had been closely watched by Beijing and Washington for signs of a new approach after eight years of recurring tensions under outgoing President Chen Shui-bian.

Final official figures by the election commission showed that Ma won 58.45 percent of the vote, and Hsieh 41.55 percent.

"Your voices are heard. People have the right to demand a better life. Only change can bring hope, only change can provide opportunities," Ma said as his supporters partied with songs, dancing and firecrackers.

At the same time, Hsieh conceded defeat in front of despondent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters at his own headquarters.

"We accept defeat. It's my own defeat, it's not the defeat of the Taiwanese people. Please don't cry for me," he said.

Ma will formally take over on May 20, when Chen steps down after serving a maximum two terms.

His victory gives the KMT overall control of the nation, as they had also crushed the DPP in parliamentary elections in January on the back of economic malaise and weariness at the strained relations with China.

Soochow University professor Liu Bih-rong, who specialises in cross-strait relations, said predicted relations with China would now improve at a faster pace.

"It shows that the Taiwanese people have given the KMT the mandate to open direct links and push for the one common market with China," he told AFP.

Ma told a press conference he would strive to improve relations with both China and the United States, but that before any peace treaty with Beijing it had to dismantle the more than 1,000 missiles targeted on the island.

Otherwise, "we have already reached some consensus on the normalisation of economic ties, direct air links, and on allowing more Chinese tourists, and it will be relatively easy to reach an agreement on those issues," he added.

China still claims Taiwan for itself and has threatened an invasion if it declares independence, confining the US-allied island to a murky limbo of de facto but unrecognised sovereignty.

The two have had virtually no direct links since the island split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war.

Ma has proposed an overhaul of economic ties to allow Taiwanese companies access to the vast mainland market while permitting Chinese investors to pump funds into the economy here.

The island is the world's 17th largest economy, mainly on the back of its information technology sector, but is losing jobs and investment to mainland China, while incomes are stagnant.

Separately, two referendums on joining the United Nations failed to muster enough turnout to make them valid, with less than 36 percent of voters making the effort.

The referendums were controversial because Taiwan lost its UN seat in 1971 to China, which has blocked its 15 attempts since then to rejoin.

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