Former Lithuanian prime minister Mr Rolandas Paksas won a surprise victory in the country's presidential election last night.
He ousted Mr Valdas Adamkus, the man who gained invites to join the EU and NATO for the Baltic state.
With results of all the country's 2,015 polling stations counted, Mr Paksas beat Mr Adamkus by 54.91 to 45.09 per cent, according to provisional final results released by the election commission.
It said Mr Paksas had got 776,764 and Mr Adamkus 637,908 of the more than 1.3 million votes cast. Mr Paksas will be charged with seeing the country through to membership of both the EU and the NATO in 2004. He said he remained committed to both goals.
Mr Adamkus, who had been the favourite throughout the presidential race, conceded defeat, predicting that Mr Paksas would keep the former Soviet republic on the same foreign policy track.
Mr Adamkus had been widely tipped to win after getting 35 per cent of the vote in the first round two weeks ago.
AFP