NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf was elected Somali president by lawmakers on Sunday in the 14th attempt in a decade to restore government to the lawless African country.

"Abdullahi Yusuf is the winner," assembly speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan told MPs meeting as an electoral college in neighboring Kenya, saying Yusuf won 189 votes against 79 for opponent Abdullahi Addou. Two ballots were spoiled.

Yusuf will head a transitional federal government that will attempt to shepherd the broken country of up to 10 million to elections under a new constitution in five years' time.

Seen by U.S. officials as a haven for militants suspected of al Qaeda links, militia-infested Somalia remains so dangerous that the interim parliament held the vote across the border in Nairobi.

"I praise the Somali people for their commitment to the process and for electing a new president in an orderly and transparent manner," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative to Somalia, Winston Tubman, told Reuters.

"I hope that the Somali people will support the outcome because that will encourage the international community to give Somalis the backing they need," he added.

The poll, the culmination of a two-year-old reconciliation process, is intended to produce an executive head of state who will reimpose order on a country long a byword for anarchy.

The election had gone into a third round after no outright winner emerged in the first and second ballots, which were contested by more than two dozen candidates and were also won by Yusuf.

GROUND ZERO

Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have died from famine, disease and violence since 1991 when warlords ousted then military ruler Mohamed Siad Barre.

Thirteen previous peace conferences have failed to stabilize the country of up to 10 million people, which is divided into clan-based fiefdoms.

"Everything has been destroyed. They are starting from ground zero," said Kenya's ambassador to Somalia, Mohammed Affey.

Before the vote all the candidates signed a solemn pledge to respect the result and hand over any weapons held by them or their supporters to the new government.

They also promised not to disrupt the voting process itself. Fistfights, scuffles and walkouts have marred the few sessions the parliament has held since it was selected at a reconciliation conference in August.

Among the many possible pitfalls is the danger that a sore loser could decide to play a spoiling role as the new president prepares to establish his rule in anarchic Mogadishu.