"Our priorities will be national security, both external and internal," the 72-year-old Prime Minister said in a speech after he was anointed leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which won a parliamentary majority in the month-long elections.

"The people of India have already elected him, we are only performing a formality," home minister Lal Krishna Advani said after he supported Vajpayee's candidature.

Vajpayee, the first Prime Minister in nearly three decades to be re-elected to office in back-to-back elections will likely meet President KR Narayanan on Monday to formally inform him of his election as NDA chief, aides said.

India under Vajpayee's watch carried out the first set of nuclear explosions in nearly a quarter of century and this summer launched its biggest military offensive inKashmir to expel hundreds of what it said were Pakistan-backed infiltrators.

A beaming Vajpayee, with garlands from jubilant allies around his neck, promised an end to years of instability.

"India has won. Every corner of India is represented in the NDA in parliament," he said, in parliament's historic central hall.

"If we protect and sustain the coalition, the coalition will protect and sustain us," he said to the thumping of desks. The new government, which is expected to be sworn into office on Wednesday, will be India's sixth since 1996 when an inconclusive election led to a string of shaky administrations. Vajpayee, whose minority government lost a confidence vote in parliament in April, said the alliance now had the mandate it wanted.

"Our NDA has got a clear majority. This is what we had asked the people for. We are now on test," he earlier told lawmakers of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who elected him as their leader. The 24-member NDA won 297 seats in the lower house ofparliament, well above the 272 needed to rule.

The moderate face of the fiercely nationalist BJP, Vajpayee said it was time to set aside the bitterness of the election campaign. "There was bitterness, that period is over. We hope that Indian democracy will come through stronger after this election," he said. Without issues, the election turned into a presidential-style race between the Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born head of the Congress party.