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CANBERRA : Welsh-born lawyer Julia Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister Thursday after the once hugely popular Kevin Rudd fell victim to a party coup less than three years after taking office.

"The next Labor prime minister, the first female prime minister of this country will be Julia Gillard," a party spokesman said.

Julia Gillard (front)

Rudd stepped down as party leader, avoiding a ballot he was certain to lose. He conceded he had lost the support of key factional leaders and was sliding in opinion polls following a serious of policy back-flips.

Gillard's ascension was cemented in a parliamentary party ballot which a defiant Rudd had announced late on Wednesday night.

She was elected unopposed in a shock ballot which Rudd, struggling in the polls as elections loom, had called just hours earlier after powerful factions suddenly swung against him.

The flame-haired Gillard, 48, said she was "very honoured" to become Australia's 27th prime minister tasked with averting defeat in national polls expected this year.

"I feel very honoured, I will be making a full statement very shortly," Gillard told waiting reporters after emerging from the party vote at Parliament House in Canberra.

A grim-faced Rudd strode through Parliament House without talking to journalists after a dizzying fall from power which stunned observers and the country's political establishment.

Rudd had enjoyed record support since taking power in 2007 and topped the polls until recent months, when support fell away over a series of policy problems, notably a controversial mining tax and the shelving of a flagship emissions trading scheme.

Party factions saw Rudd, reportedly unpopular with colleagues, as an election liability after a sharp drop in public support over the emissions scheme and the mining tax, which was strongly opposed by the powerful resources sector.

The steep and unexpected fall from grace left the government in danger of becoming the first since before World War II not to secure a second term. Elections are expected later this year.

The highly-rated Gillard had been playing down prospects of a leadership tilt for several weeks after a poll showed her breathing down Rudd's neck as preferred party leader.

"There's more chance of me becoming the full-forward for the Dogs (Western Bulldogs Australian Rules football team) than there is any chance of a change in the Labor Party," she said last month.

Last week, top officials moved to scotch rumours of a leadership challenge. In recent days, the opposition targeted Rudd with attack ads portraying him as a cartoon lemon.

Rudd now becomes the first Australian prime minister to be deposed in office in 19 years, when Labor's Paul Keating ousted Bob Hawke in 1991.

"Kevin Rudd has always been a very unpopular person in the parliament," former foreign minister Alexander Downer, who served Rudd's predecessor John Howard, told Fairfax radio.

"He was just not a person that people liked, because he was so self-centred and so self-interested."

Treasurer Wayne Swan, credited with steering the country successfully through the global financial crisis, will be deputy prime minister once he and Gillard are sworn in by Governor General Quentin Bryce later Thursday.

Rudd had been expected to contest the Labor Party ballot against the Welsh-born Gillard, a childless single career woman, who entered parliament in 1998.

But after indications that he would have lost the vote, garnering the support of only around 30 parliamentary colleagues, compared to Gillard's more than 70 supporters, he stood aside at the last minute.

Centre-left Labor leader Rudd was riding high on opinion polls until recently, but his approval rating has tumbled after a serious of policy U-turns, including backing down on a carbon emissions trading scheme to combat climate change.

(CNA)