Promising to head a more combative group that will take the fight for decentralization to the central government, Wataru Aso was elected president of the National Governors Association on Thursday.

Aso, the 65-year-old governor of Fukuoka Prefecture, received 27 votes, while his lone rival, Iwate Governor Hiroya Masuda, 53, received 19. One vote was declared invalid.

Thursday's vote to pick a successor to Taku Kajiwara, who gave up the presidency after retiring earlier this year as Gifu governor, was the first for the National Governors Association.

High on Aso's to-do list will be taking on Tokyo in discussions to transfer 3 trillion yen in tax-collecting authority from the central to prefectural governments.

``The National Governors Association has to stand at the forefront of a historic and major reform process,'' Aso declared after the vote. ``The solidarity of all 47 governors is indispensable.''

Very little separated the two candidates in terms of policy, with both Aso and Masuda promising to carry on Kajiwara's fight for greater authority for prefectural and municipal governments as part of a general trend toward decentralization.

Aso will serve out the remainder of Kajiwara's term, which ends in May 2007.

Aso was mainly backed by his fellow governors from Kyushu, as well as the governors of Osaka and Niigata, both of whom, like Aso, are former bureaucrats from the old Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Masuda was backed by the governors of his Tohoku region, as well as a number of governors close to Kajiwara.

About a dozen governors declined to reveal who they voted for in the secret ballot, saying they did not want to create hard feelings.

In the past, the presidency of the National Governors Association had been considered more of an honorary post, and presidents were picked through discussions among the longest-serving governors.(IHT/Asahi: February 18,2005)