Democratic Republic of Congo's Supreme Court proclaimed Joseph Kabila president after rejecting a legal challenge to his election victory by rival Jean-Pierre Bemba.
"Mr Kabila Kabange, Joseph, is proclaimed president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, elected by absolute majority," the tribunal said in a statement read out in a temporary courtroom heavily guarded by Congolese police and UN peacekeepers.
Mr Kabila had been president since his father Laurent's assassination in 2001.
The court rejected a challenge filed by former rebel warlord Mr Bemba against results from the October 29th presidential run-off showing Mr Kabila had won 58.05 per cent of the votes against 41.95 per cent for Bemba, whose camp had alleged "systematic cheating".
The court session, which confirmed the result already announced by electoral authorities, was held in the Foreign Ministry in Kinshasa, because the Supreme Court building was set on fire by rioting Bemba supporters last week.
Mr Bemba's lawyers boycotted the court after it rejected their request to reopen the debate over the election result.
The poll was the culmination of Congo's first free polls in more than four decades, aimed at ending years of and war, dictatorship and chaos in the vast former Belgian colony in central Africa.