The Kremlin’s candidate has won Chechnya’s presidential election but faces an uphill struggle to subdue a resurgence of a separatist rebellion that has frustrated Russian leaders for a decade.

With nearly 85 percent of votes counted by 0400 GMT yesterday, Alu Alkhanov, 47, handpicked by President Vladimir Putin for the role, won nearly 74 percent of votes in Sunday’s polls, more than enough for an outright victory.

But the career policeman Alkhanov faces a battle to garner some of the standing enjoyed by his hard-nosed predecessor Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated in May, and to bring stability to a region where separatists are becoming more audacious in their attacks.

“I feel an enormous burden of responsibility,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying after the first returns from the polls appeared. “I feel no euphoria. There is a clear understanding that a lot of hard work is ahead.”

The poll took place against a backdrop of heavy fighting in Chechnya and two plane crashes that killed at least 89 people elsewhere in Russia.

Investigators say traces of explosives were found on both planes, and many Russians blame Chechen separatists for the disasters.

On Sunday, a man identified as a wanted Chechen rebel was killed by his own bomb near a polling station in the capital, Grozny. He had tried to enter the polling station but while running away triggered the device, an election official said. No one else was hurt.

Separatists assassinated Kadyrov in a May bomb attack that showed the precarious nature of Russian rule. They have vowed to kill Alkhanov as another “Moscow stooge”.

“Like last time, the authorities will be signing the death warrant of the man they pick. Neither elections, nor Russia’s current politics in Chechnya will bring the desired results,” rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev said in a recent statement.

Tens of thousands were killed in the first Chechen conflict from 1994 to 1996. Putin sent troops back into the mainly Muslim territory on Russia’s southern fringes in 1999 to cement his image as a strong leader ahead of his own election.

But victory over the rebels has eluded Putin, now in his second term, and the killing of Kadyrov – Putin’s iron man in the region – was a major blow. He now is looking to the tall, moustachioed Alkhanov to do what some say is the impossible.

Alkhanov told Tass he saw no prospects for talks with the rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov or any of unrepentant guerrillas.

“They can stage explosions and kill, but the will of the people has already thrown them out to the history dump together with Maskhadov,” he said.

Chechnya’s economy has been shattered by war. As much as 70 percent of the population is unemployed and the role the region once enjoyed as a transit route for oil was destroyed by violence and corruption years ago.

Alkhanov said that apart from ensuring security for Chechens, his administration would focus on reviving Chechnya’s economy and creating 150 000 new jobs in the next five years.

<I>“But the career policeman Alkhanov faces a battle to garner some of the standing enjoyed by his hard-nosed predecessor Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated.”</I>

<B>Key players in Russia’s Chechnya</B>

Alu Alkhanov has won the Chechen election by a landslide results but his presidency will fail if he does not deal with the most powerful men in the Russian region.

Following is a list of the top five:

RAMZAN KADYROV - Ramzan has assumed the mantle of his murdered father Akhmad Kadyrov, the former president and head of a group of powerful officials. The 27-year-old’s opinion will be key to Alkhanov’s chances, since he controls thousands of irregular troops loyal to his family. Some analysts have said the Kremlin wishes to sideline Kadyrov. The move could weaken Moscow’s hand if Kadyrov’s militia, which includes many repentant rebels, is annoyed.

ASLAN MASKHADOV - Elected president of a de facto independent Chechnya in 1997, Maskhadov is the nominal leader of the rebel movement. He has dismissed the elections as a farce, promised to take the war to provinces outside Chechnya and pledged to kill the winner of the election. Seen in the West as relatively moderate, the Kremlin calls Maskhadov a “terrorist”.

In his first comments after the polls, Alkhanov ruled out talks with Kadyrov and other radical rebels like Shamil Basayev.

SHAMIL BASAYEV - Russia’s most wanted and most feared man, the bearded warlord has said he organised the killing of Akhmad Kadyrov. He also claims all the most deadly Chechen attacks of the war, including a hostage-taking in a Moscow theatre in 2002, a string of suicide bombings and a raid on a region near Chechnya in June that killed 90 people.

RUSLAN YAMADAYEV - Chechnya’s representative in the Russian lower house of parliament is part of one of the region’s most powerful families.

As leader of the Chechen branch of the key pro-Kremlin party, the United Russia, he has some control over Chechnya’s political life. MALIK SAIDULLAYEV .

A Moscow-based businessman, Saidullayev was barred from the last two Chechen polls on technicalities. He is widely popular in the region, and his wealth gives him some influence with hostage-takers and officials. After his latest disqualification, he ruled himself out of politics in a Moscow-ruled Chechnya.

<B>Oliveer Bullough</B>