Nearly three years ago Beazley inherited a party dispirited and despised after a landslide defeat that ended a 13-year stretch in power.

But the unassuming and jovial big man of Australian politics has managed to recapture support in Labour's heartland and demolish the 44-seat majority Prime Minister John Howard won in March 1996. ``The Labour Party is back in town,'' a jubilant Beazley said on Saturday to a standing ovation from 600 party faithful gathered in his Western Australian electorate.

Although it failed to capture the marginal electorates it needed for a victory, Labour scored nearly 52 percent of the vote on a two-party basis and reduced Howard's majority to about eight seats.

It was a heroic achievement that consolidates Beazley's position at the helm of the Labour Party and gives him anexcellent chance of becoming Australia's next prime minister.Considered an amiable and decent man by both sides of politics, Beazley was an ideal replacement for Prime Minister Paul Keating, whose acid tongue and parliamentary brawling had alienated voters.

Pundits had questioned whether, with his casual style and shambling bulk, the 49-year-old parliamentary veteran and former academic could command the respect of the electorate. Physically, he is an unlikely prime ministerial contender and a cartoonist's dream his hair perpetually needs a trim and his suits rarely seem to fit. He looks more like Germany's outgoing chancellor Helmut Kohl than his close friend, British Prime Minister Tony Blair who sent his best wishes on election eve.

But his dishevelled appearance adds to his image as an approachable, friendly figure, in comparison with his rival Howard, a former suburban solicitor who can appear stiff and uncomfortable.Opinion polls showed that while voters considered him sincere and honourable, as aneconomic manager and potential prime minister he lagged behind.

However, a strong performance in a one-hour leaders' debate, and an impassioned address at the Labour campaign launch bolstered his credibility and gave him a shot at victory.Beazley was born into a Labor household and followed his father, a former cabinet minister, into politics in 1980 at the age of 31, entering Prime minister Bob Hawke's cabinet three years later.

He has a great love for history and his passion for all things military saw himdubbed `Bomber Beazley' during his youthful and enthusiastic stint as defence minister. Apart from his fight to unseat the coalition, on Saturday the Opposition Labour Party leader again faced a battle to retain his seat of Brand in Western Australia -- notoriously marginal and won by only 300 seats in the 1996 poll.

This time Beazley won comfortably and during his speech on Saturday, where he had conceded defeat in these elections, he congratulated his campaign workers for delivering him``something that looks like a safe seat.''The anti-Asia One Nation party targeted Beazley and other high-profile incumbents during the campaign and at one stage its candidate, a 33-year-old carpet salesman, was considered a serious threat to his future.

Wife Susie Annus, a glamorous television producer, vowed to become the first working wife of an Australian Prime minister if Labour won office, something she believed the country would have ``no problem with''. Annus and their six-year-old daughter -- he has two others by his first marriage -- had planned to join Beazley in Canberra if he won, but he will now resume the grinding weekly trek between the remote western city and the capital.