KAMPALA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Uganda's main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, is on course for a third tussle with President Yoweri Museveni for the east African nation's top job after retaining his party's leadership.

Besigye, who was once Museveni's close ally and personal doctor, has lost twice to the former guerrilla leader, most recently in Uganda's 2006 presidential election.

Besigye kept the presidency of his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) in a landslide victory at a vote late on Friday, local media said. That makes him the presumptive 2011 presidential challenger, though the party will formally vote next year on their candidate.

In July, state media reported that Museveni -- one of Africa's longest-serving rulers and in power since 1986 -- would stand for re-election in the 2011 vote. Uganda's leader has not commented publicly on that.

After a first unsuccessful challenge in 2001, Besigye had more support in the 2006 election, garnering 37 percent of the vote to Museveni's 59 despite being arrested in the run-up and alleging fraud in the count

Analysts expect a closer fight in 2011, though Museveni is seen by most as still having the edge.

Museveni was at first hailed by the West as a business-friendly example of a new generation of African leaders, but donors have become critical of his increasingly autocratic style.

Landlocked Uganda lies on a crossroads of trade routes from the mineral-rich forests of eastern Congo to oil-producing southern Sudan and Kenya's Indian Ocean coast.

Recent oil discoveries in Lake Albert have boosted investor interest in the east African nation which has seen an average growth of 6 percent in recent years.

(Reporting by Jack Kimball)

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