Chile's president-elect Ricardo Lagos has vowed to work for national unity and to heal the wounds of the past, in a victory speech to cheering supporters in Santiago's Constitution Square on Sunday night.

In the speech, broadcast live on Chilean TV, Mr Lagos said: "Our victory is fair and beautiful but it is a defeat for nobody. I want my fellow Chileans to know that I will be the president of all the Chilean people."

"Today, we are all together; those who garnered victory and those who could not obtain it. We all face the same obligation. We want to work together to obtain a common dream," he said.

Mr Lagos told the crowd that for Chileans the century was coming to an end "with unsolved sorrows among us".

"I want to move forward so as to solve the pain that still remains from the century that is closing," he said.

"Today my first promise goes to those humble faces, to those hands laden with hope that were extended because they believed that it was possible to achieve a better world. I will work indefatigably so as not to let them down, so that those hands will be able to find another caring hand," Mr Lagos said.

The president-elect vowed "to work together with those who until yesterday were our adversaries to build a new country".

"This is the task with which you, Chileans, have entrusted us. I am not going to disappoint anybody. Now is the time to look ahead and forge a new future," he said.

"I invite those who have not voted for us to leave aside mistrust or rancour and to join in with us here and now to embark on the wonderful task," Mr Lagos said.