BELGRADE, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Danilo Tuerk, Slovenia's former senior U.N. diplomat, won Sunday's presidential run-off with around 70 percent of the vote against former prime minister Lojze Peterle, exit polls show.

    Tuerk, 55, will be another Slovenian president from the left-wing bloc, which President Janez Drnovsek and his predecessor Milan Kucan are generally seen as being part of.

Presidential candidate Danilo Turk(R) answers journalists questions in his headquarters after hearing the first unofficial results of Slovenian Presidential elections, in Ljubljana. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Peterle conceded defeat after exit polls showed Tuerk winning the presidential run-off in a landslide.

    "I congratulate Tuerk on the fair match. I admit I did not expect such a gap," he told reporters, as exit polls were released.

    Tuerk entered the presidential race as a little-known albeit distinguished diplomat having spent 13 years at the United Nations.

    Tuerk was posted to the United Nations in 1992 as the first Slovenian ambassador. Upon appointment the political weekly Mladina put him on the cover in a superman costume, and Tuerk says he still has it framed.

    At the United Nations he cut his teeth in particular during Slovenia's spell in 1998 and 1999 as a non-permanent member of the Security Council. He is widely considered as having shown a stellar performance.

    His eight-year stint as Slovenia's ambassador was followed by promotion to assistant U.N. secretary general for political affairs, a post he held between 2000 and 2005 as the highest ranking Slovenian U.N. official ever.

    Disappointed that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan failed to appoint him under-secretary-general for political affairs, Tuerk, a doctor of international law, stepped down and in 2006 returned to the Ljubljana Faculty of Law as professor of international law.

    This marked his return to the faculty, where he started his career as junior assistant in 1978 after a stint as secretary of the commission for human rights and emigration at the Socialist Union of the Working People.

    In the run-up campaign to the run-off, the camp of Peterle questioned Tuerk's contribution to independence considering that he was listed in official documents as being on the Yugoslav delegation.

    Tuerk rejected the doubts, noting that Slovenia had not existed at the time, so he could not have been on the Slovenian delegation. Moreover, a book by the then and current Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel suggested that he was sent to the United Nations precisely because of his merits in the fight for independence.

    Tuerk was born on Feb. 19, 1952 in the city of Maribor in northeastern Slovenia. He is married to Barbara and has one daughter, Helena.