Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a key U.S. ally in Latin America, swept to an emphatic election victory on Sunday, rewarded by voters for confronting guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug traffickers in a country bloodied by years of conflict and crime.

In Colombia's most peaceful election in years, Uribe won a second four years in office with 62 percent of the vote.

The key to Uribe's expected success was a crackdown on the right-wing militias and leftist FARC rebels, who use the profits from supplying cocaine and heroin to U.S. consumers to sustain their insurgency.

Opponents say he must now address the challenge of poverty and unemployment in a country with harsh divisions between rich and poor. Critics also say he must ensure his tough security policies do not result in increased human rights abuses.

The victory by the 53-year-old lawyer and landowner was good news for Washington, which is alarmed by a rising tide of leftist leaders and anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Washington has pumped more military aid into Colombia than any other country outside the Middle East in the past four years.

In his victory address, Uribe promised Colombians, "We will advance."

"Democratic security has begun to restore the liberties that terrorism tried to take way,' he said."

But he also recognised the social challenge.

"We cannot escape the clamour from Colombians for more and better jobs," Uribe said, adding that employment could not be created by decree.

Hundreds of supporters crowded into Uribe's campaign headquarters in a Bogota hotel chanting: "Uribe, Uribe, Long Live Colombia".

PEACEFUL VOTE

Caravans of cars with honking horns and people waving the red-yellow-and-blue national flag drove through district of Bogota in noisy celebrations.

As people voted, soldiers patrolled the streets of Bogota, high in the Andes mountains, and across the nation of 41 million people, but no major guerrilla attacks were reported.

"There was total calm except some small incidents that did not effect the election," Armed Forces Commander Gen. Carlos Ospina said.

Previous elections had been scarred by guerrilla attacks which killed dozens. But this time, the FARC urged people to vote, apparently calculating that a campaign of violence on election day would play into Uribe's hands.

Voters praised Uribe for driving the guerrillas from the cities by putting more security forces on the streets and hunting down rebels using better intelligence.

They have welcomed being able to lead more normal lives in Bogota and other cities after years in which kidnappings, car bombs and assassinations had been frequent. Uribe's own father was killed in a kidnap attempt in 1983

Uribe says he needs another four years to finish the job. He says he will offer peace talks to the 17,000-strong FARC -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- which still controls swathes of the countryside, but they must lay down their arms.

Investors will also applaud his re-election. Colombia's economy grew a brisk 5.3 percent last year and foreign investment picked up. Uribe is one of the few Andean leaders to embrace U.S. free-trade proposals.

Uribe's closest rival, his former law professor, center-leftist Carlos Gaviria, pledged in his concession speech to keep up the fight for social justice as part of the opposition.

Gaviria supporters chanted, "Uribe, fascist, you are a terrorist."

Nevertheless, Gaviria's respectable showing with 22 percent of the vote and a violence-free campaign showed that space existed for a democratic left in Colombia, analysts said.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Markey, Luis Jaime Acosta, Manuela Badawy and Silene Ramirez)