Hayatou has won a fifth term of office

Issa Hayatou has been retained as president of the Confederation of African Football.

At the Caf Congress in Tunis, the 57-year-old Cameroonian won a landslide victory against challenger Ismail Bhamjee of Botswana.

Hayatou won by 46 votes to 6, and his new four-year mandate will extend his leadership of African football until 2008, giving him 20 years in the job.

"Thank you for re-electing me," Hayatou said shortly after his victory.

"I am at your full disposal to serve African football.

"Caf should remain what it is, an African organisation run by by Africans," Hayatou added in apparent reference to his opponent's Indian ancestry.

South Africa-born Bhamjee, the former president of the Botswana Football Association, had earlier called for an end to cliques and racism in Caf in a last-minute appeal to the 52-member congress - but to no avail.

"Only by working together can we best defend African football," Hayatou then explained in his victory speach.

"And now on to football!" the president declared in reference to the Cup of Nations which starts in Tunisia on Saturday.

Hayatou, who was first elected Caf president in 1988, also took time to assure Ismail Bhamjee of his long-lasting friendship.

Ghana's Abedi Pele has failed in his bid to be elected to CAF's Executive

In spite of his comprehensive defeat, the 60-year-old Bhamjee still has two more years to serve on the Fifa executive committee.

The presidency was just one of many elections taking place at the congress in the Tunisian capital.

Tunisia's Slim Chiboub won a seat on the Fifa executive committee as one of Africa's four representatives in a boost for his own country's 2010 World Cup ambitions.

He will now be one of the 24 committee members who will decide the host nation for the 2010 World Cup bid on May 15.

Meanwhile, Ghana's Abedi Pele, a former African Footballer of the Year, failed in his bid to get elected to the Caf executive committee.

The incumbent for the Zone West B area, Dr Amos Adamu, won the contest by 32 votes to 20.

In a further development, both the Comores and Zanzibar have been accepted as associate Caf members.