Tokyo - Taro Aso, an Olympic shooting competitor, finally hit his target on the fourth try Monday and became president of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

The 68-year-old political veteran is expected to assume the prime ministership on Wednesday to succeed Yasuo Fukuda, but Aso's leadership may not last too long.

After LDP lost control of the upper house last July and two premiers abruptly resigned since then, many Japanese voters have lost confidence in the party that has stayed in power for more than half a century.

The challenge for the grandson and son-in-law of former prime ministers will be able to revive the public's trust in the party's policies and leadership.

Speculations are spreading that Aso is likely to dissolve the lower house and call a general election by the end of October in hopes of breaking the deadlock in the divided parliament.

Since the opposition took control of the upper house, LDP has faced difficulties in enacting key legislation - one of the reasons Fukuda is stepping down.

An early general election may help LDP boost its support, some analysts say.

But the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is calling for a change of power with its president Ichiro Ozawa, 66, determined to win, although the party's general secretary recently admitted that many DPJ candidates are "not yet sufficiently ready to meet that high target."

Aso, who admits a fondness for manga comics, believes he is the right man to capture a popular mandate in a general election.

"I will finally be able to declare that my fate is met and my mission is accomplished when we defeat DPJ in the next election," Aso said shortly after he was elected LDP president Monday.

LDP is the only party strong enough to stand up to mounting problems in and outside of Japan, he said.

On foreign diplomacy, Aso acknowledged that Japan and China can work as good partners," despite the popular belief that he is a conservative hawk.

With a few slips of the tongue, Aso has worried Asian nations, which suffered Japan's wartime aggression.

He sparked criticism from Taiwan in 2006 for saying "Japan did a good thing" to implement compulsory education in Taiwan during colonization. He intended to compliment the island's high educational standards, but evoked memories of colonial arrogance instead.

A fourth-generation Catholic, Aso has refrained from visiting controversial Yasukuni Shrine on August 15, the day Japan surrendered to end World War II. Visits to the Tokyo shrine by Japan's political leaders have prompted protests from Asian neighbours because Yasukuni honours 2.5 million war dead including Class-A war criminals.

He has evaded questions on whether he plans to visit the shrine as prime minister.

On the domestic front, Aso lacks clear vision in political and economic policies, unlike former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, analysts said.

While the world's second-largest economy has ended its longest post-war expansion, Aso plans to revive the sluggish economy through increased government spending. He also pledged to deliver a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year before the lower house is dissolved.

In doing so, Aso may pull Japan back into the old LDP-style of mounting debt, and ending the reform course of Koizumi, according to analysts.

The party needs to demonstrate a clear course of where it would take Japan. Otherwise, Aso would diminish as another filler in the blanks.