Mr Abe won 464 of the 702 votes counted.Taro Aso, Japan's Foreign Minister, came in a distant second with 136 votes and Sadakazu Tanigaki, the Finance Minister, garnered 102 votes. Mr Abe won a three-year term as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, all but guaranteeing his election as premier in a vote in parliament on September 26.

The party's new president confirmed his stern reputation yesterday when he announced sanctions against North Korea in retaliation for its test firing of long-range missiles. Australia joined Japan in banning remittances of money to a list of North Korean institutions, after the launch in July of seven missiles, including one long-range weapon said to be capable of striking the United States. The practical impact of the sanctions will be limited as trade between Japan and North Korea has shrunk to a fifth of its volume 20 years ago.

Among the subjects of the sanctions are trading companies in Pyongyang, shipping firms, a hospital used by senior members of the North Korean regime and the Swiss head of a company said to be implicated in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. A United Nations Security Council resolution has called for member states to prevent deals that help North Korean weapons programmes.

Mr Abe made the announcement on his last day as Chief Cabinet Secretary. He is already giving signs that as well as being the country’s youngest leader since the war - his 52nd birthday is tomorrow - he will also be one of its most conservative and nationalistic. He came to prominence after the revelation in 2002 that North Korea abducted at least a dozen Japanese during the 1970s and 1980s to become language teachers for its spies. His frequent appearances on television to denounce the Government in Pyongyang brought him to public attention.

Mr Abe has stated his intention of revising the postwar “peace” Constitution to allow Japanese troops to take part more freely in overseas peacekeeping missions. He wants to set up a national security council under his direct control and domestic and overseas spy agencies similar to MI5 and MI6. He speaks of rebuilding relations with Japan’s neighbours China and South Korea, but insists on the right to continue visiting the Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead and glorifies its wartime aggression.

“I aim to create a beautiful Japan which is respected by the world and which children can be proud of,” he said yesterday. “I want to create a new diplomacy under which Japan at times takes leadership and asserts opinions to set the world’s rules.”

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