Kevin Rudd’s Labor party swept to power in Australia’s federal election on Saturday delivering a stunning defeat to the 11-year reign of prime minister John Howard and his ruling centre-right coalition.

Mr Howard, one of the world’s longest-serving Western leaders and an important ally of US president George W Bush over the war in Iraq, faced a humiliating end to his 33 year political career after conceding he was likely to lose his own federal seat of Bennelong, becoming Australia’s first sitting prime minister to be voted out of parliament in nearly 80 years.

Mr Rudd, a 50-year old Mandarin-speaking diplomat elected to lead Labor less than 12 months ago, is an economic conservative who has promised to ratify the Kyoto protocol on climate change in a move that will leave the US isolated, to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq and to restore workers' bargaining power.