ATHENS, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Antonis Samaras, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Culture and Finance in previous conservative governments in Greece over the past two decades, was elected new leader of the country's main opposition New Democracy (ND) party, as it was announced on Monday.

    The 58-year-old economist won the party's Sunday vote by 50.2 percent, according to the results, while his main rival Dora Bakogianni, also former Foreign Minister, received 39 percent of the vote and a third candidate Panagiotis Psomiadis gained 10 percent.

    "People have spoken. Today, there are no losers. We will all work united to face the challenges of the future," Samaras told his supporters, promising hard work for the benefit of both the party and Greece.

    He succeeds former Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis who resigned from the centre-right party's leadership following a defeat on October 4 general elections which socialists won.

    Samaras who favors more conservative than centrist policies, promises a wide reform of New Democracy.

    Advocating a harder line on the name dispute with Macedonia as a foreign minister in 1993 he caused the collapse of the then New Democracy government, headed by Constantinos Mitsotakis, who is Bakogiannis' father. He formed another party, named "Political Spring", but it was dissolved in 2004 and Samaras returned to New Democracy.