Former financier elected leader of New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealanders chose a wealthy, conservative former financier yesterday to help navigate the country through the global financial meltdown, handing long-serving left-wing Prime Minister Helen Clark a crushing election defeat.

John Key, 47, leader of the conservative National Party, swept to power in this South Pacific country of 4.1 million people, ousting Clark's Labour Party after nine years.

"Today, New Zealand has spoken, in their hundreds of thousands, they have voted for change," Key said at a packed victory celebration in the country's largest city, Auckland.

New Zealand's farming export-dependent economy fell into recession early this year, and Key said the worldwide downturn is the most immediate problem for the country.

"The global financial crisis means that the road ahead may well be a rocky one," Key said. "Tomorrow, the hard work begins."

Before being elected to parliament in 2002, Key was a currency trader at Merrill Lynch.

Key has promised a more right-leaning government than Clark's, which for almost a decade made global warming a key policy issue.

In a country where the environment is a mainstream political issue, Key has vowed to wind back Clark's greenhouse gas emission trading program to protect businesses from financial losses, and to reduce red tape that he says entangles important dam projects.

Clark accepted responsibility for a crushing loss by quitting as Labour's leader - effectively retiring to obscurity.

She blamed a "time-for-a-change factor and that took us out with the tide" for the election loss.

"So, with that it's over and out from me. Thank you New Zealand for the privilege of having been your prime minister for the last nine years,

Kia ora Tatou

," she said, reciting a farewell in the indigenous Maori language.