FACTBOX-The LibDems' new man Nick Clegg

LONDON (Reuters) - The Liberal Democrats have elected keen mountaineer Nick Clegg as their third leader in just two years, after Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy.

The 40-year-old Clegg is widely expected to move quickly to end the party's long months of introspection over the leadership by reshuffling his front bench team to present a new face.

His detractors in the leadership race called him more "right-wing" than his rival Chris Huhne, 53, while his supporters emphasised his likely youthful appeal to the electorate.

He described himself as a liberal during his party leadership acceptance speech.

"I am a liberal by temperament, by instinct and by upbringing," he said.

"My own family was marked, scattered, reunited by the tragic conflicts of the last century."

Clegg was born on January 7 1967 and studied anthropology at Cambridge University in the late 1980s before doing an MA in European affairs at the College of Europe in Bruges.

The party's law and order spokesman, he is a former journalist and is MP for Sheffield Hallam, having entered parliament in 2005.

He was a Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands in 1999 until he stood down in 2004.

Clegg, a keen skier, is married with two young sons.