KINSHASA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Joseph Kabila, who became Congo's president when his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001, has now gained a mandate through the ballot box to rule the vast, mineral-rich country as its elected leader.

The 35-year-old from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was declared the winner on Wednesday of a historic presidential election intended to bring a new era of stability to the former Belgian colony after years of war, dictatorship and chaos.

He has enjoyed the clear support of western governments like the United States and France, regional allies like South Africa and Angola and businessmen and mining magnates who have signed multi-million dollar deals under his rule.

Like his election rival, ex-rebel chief and Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, whose coalition disputes the poll results, Kabila is a former guerrilla fighter who participated in nearly a decade of war that ravaged the huge central African country.

He fought alongside his father in a military campaign from the east that toppled dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997 after more than 20 years as the despotic, whimsical and corrupt leader of the nation he had renamed Zaire.

But when Laurent Kabila was killed by a bodyguard five years ago, his soft-spoken, publicity-shy son, who received military training in China, was thrust into the political limelight and installed as the world's youngest head of state.

He swapped his military fatigues for elegant business suits, but -- in contrast to his chubby, jovial and temperamental father -- remained a reserved figure, giving few news conferences and a minimum of low-key speeches.

He cuts a very different figure from Congo's fiery, leftist post-independence leader Patrice Lumumba, an African revolutionary icon, who was murdered in 1961.

Kabila has promised to rule by consensus to try to heal the still raw scars of Congo's many conflicts.

"The effort now must be nation building, it must be reconstruction ... The government that will be put in place will be a government of coalition," he told foreign reporters on Wednesday, hours before his election win was declared.

His rival, Bemba, and other members of the opposition will have a role to play in this, he added.

HERO OF THE EAST

Though revered in the Swahili-speaking east, where he is widely credited with helping to end Congo's 1998-2003 war, he is less liked in the west, where Lingala is spoken, a language he does not know well.

His enemies even question whether he is "a true son of Congo", labelling him a foreigner because of the time he spent as a child and adolescent in family exile in East Africa.

With the cooperation of the international community, and the biggest United Nations peacekeeping force in the world, he presided over a complex, sometimes stumbling peace process that culminated in the elections, Congo's first free polls in more than four decades.

Kabila faces a daunting task to try to unite a sprawling country, embraced by the coils of the Congo river, which has been devastated by years of conflict and ethnic rivalries.

Despite being a treasure trove of gold, copper, cobalt, diamonds and other minerals, Congo lacks basic infrastructure and has only a few hundred kilometres (miles) of paved roads.

The war created what aid workers call one of the world's worst humanitarian crises which has already killed around four million people. Some 1,200 Congolese still die every day from violence, hunger and disease.

One of around 10 children by several mothers, Kabila was born in the copper-rich southeast province of Katanga on June 4, 1971, his official biography says.

He spent most of his formative years in East Africa where his father Laurent went into exile after fighting against Mobutu in a failed Cuban-backed rebellion in the 1960s.

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