Austria's opposition social Democrat leader Heinz Fischer won the presidential election here Sunday, defeating rival incumbent Foreign Minister Ferrero-Waldner.

With over 60 percent of votes counted, state broadcaster ORF projected Heinz Fischer as the winner with about 53 percent, against 47 percent for Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

Fischer kept a narrow lead in most polls by stressing a commitment to the welfare state and to Austria's cherished neutrality.

Ferrero-Waldner was nominated by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's conservatives and back by right-wing populist Joerg Haider. She was less clearly in favor of maintaining the neutrality Austria assumed after World War II and identified by many voters with the pension reforms and social spending cuts of the center-right government.

Ferrero-Waldner said Sunday that she would continue to serve as foreign minister despite her election loss to Heinz Fischer.

She pledged in a television interview after conceding defeat that she would "work at full speed for Austria as foreign minister."

Source: Xinhua