Levy Mwanawasa, newly sworn in as Zambian president, faces huge challenges in reviving the country's ailing economy.

At the time of independence in 1964, Zambia was one of Africa's richest countries, with deep copper deposits and a healthy agricultural sector.

But the economy has been ravaged by years of mismanagement and corruption, with many Zambians living on less than $1 a day.

"Zambia enjoyed the peak of its prosperity in the early 1970s," metals analyst Tony Warwick Ching told the BBC's World Business Report, crediting buoyant copper prices and high production levels.

Mr Mwanawasa, candidate for the ruling party, also faces legal challenge to his presidency, with opposition leaders planning to contest the election results in the courts, amid allegations of irregularity.

Bear left

From the 1960s right through to the early 1990s, under President Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia veered to the left.

The country's huge copper mines became public property, as did its farms, in an attempt to solve issues of ownership once and for all.

The result was underperformance - exacerbated by corruption at the top as Mr Kaunda's United National Independence Party made Zambia's de facto one-party state into the law of the land.

The debts built up as the country got poorer.

Party time

By 1990, amid food riots across the country, it was time for a change.

In 1991, elections under a new constitution saw Frederick Chiluba's Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) take power.

The result was the most sweeping economic liberalisation programme in Southern Africa, raising hopes that foreign investment would begin to flow back, and a stranded economy be reinvigorated.

The government agreed to a reform wish list drawn up by the International Monetary Fund with a view to getting speedy debt relief.

Copper and agriculture held the promise of a return to economic health.

Copper hopes?

Current low copper prices may make it unlikely that the country will reap the same rewards from increased production as it did previously.

Leading presidential candidate Anderson Mazoka was previously head of Anglo American in Zambia.

The country's biggest company, Anglo American was responsible for making Zambia the world's leading copper producer before its mines were nationalised in the 1960s.

The state owners found it difficult to maintain the same level of investment in the mines - which have now found their way back into private ownership.

"It is such a central part of the Zambian economy that they must continue to nurture the newly privatised industry and do everything to encourage people's demand for Zambian copper," Simon Paton, general secretary of the Wrought Copper Council told the BBC's World Business Report.

Mixed reform

In some cases, the economic reform introduced by the Chiluba administration has brought as many problems as benefits.

Certainly, the gates have opened to imports, with South African goods leading the pack.

But, with the currency meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, Zambian traders have seen import prices collapse, driving indigenous goods off the market.

Debt relief finally arrived last year, and $3.6bn of the total $6.5bn debt is to be forgiven as long as the savings go on anti-poverty programmes.

In any case, it will take some time to make any impact on levels of social, health and education spending which leave the three quarters of Zambians living on less than $1 a day completely on their own.

Zambia's problems have been compounded by floods which have wiped out a large proportion of this year's crop, coinciding with a shortfall of grain - particularly the country's main staple, maize - across Southern Africa.