The former dissident lawyer now faces life on the political margins while his rival, the opposition Kuomintang's Ma Ying-jeou, prepares to form the new government when he takes office on May 20.

'The Taiwanese people have cast their vote and made their decision,' Mr Hsieh told despondent supporters of his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), after Ma beat him by around 17 percentage points.

'We accept defeat. It's my own defeat, it's not the defeat of the Taiwanese people. Please don't cry for me.'

The DPP was also thrashed by the Kuomintang (KMT) in January parliamentary elections on the back of widespread concern over the stuttering state of the economy under outgoing president Chen Shui-ban.

Bespectacled, uncharismatic but a savvy political operator, Mr Hsieh whirled around Taiwan trying to eat away at Mr Ma's lead in the polls in the final weeks of campaigning.

Mr Hsieh, 61, he exploited China's crackdown in Tibet to accuse Ma of being soft on Beijing and to portray himself as best able to protect the self-ruled island's sovereignty against its big neighbour.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 when the KMT fled here after losing a civil war against communist forces. Beijing continues to claim sovereignty over the island and has threatened invasion if it declares independence.

Born into a modest family background in the capital Taipei, Mr Hsieh studied law at the prestigious National Taiwan University before obtaining a master's degree from Kyoto University in Japan.

He joined politics following December 1979 protests in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second city, when hundreds of people were injured in clashes with police and scores of dissident leaders were rounded up.

The demonstrations were crushed by the then ruling KMT government but were the first public expression of dissent and a turning point toward democracy.

It proved a catalyst for many future leaders. Mr Chen and Mr Hsieh were defence lawyers and Vice-President Annette Lu was one of the jailed dissidents.

Mr Hsieh was a member of Taipei city council from 1981 to 1989 and sat in the national parliament from 1989 until 1996, when he was nominated by the DPP as running mate to Pergn Ming-ming's unsuccessful bid for the presidency.

In 1998 he became mayor of Kaohsiung and was re-elected in 2002, a job in which he has been credited with boosting the city's international profile.

However, he is under investigation for his alleged role in a high-profile subway construction scandal and several other graft cases.

He was appointed to the premiership but stepped down in January 2006 after less than a year in the job following sweeping DPP losses in local elections, and also failed in an attempt that year to become mayor of Taipei.

The KMT has alleged Mr Hsieh and three other leading DPP figures had misused government funds, but a district court cleared him of the charges last year.

A former school gymnast who also plays the ceramic flute, Mr Hsieh is married with a son and a daughter. -- AFP