Finland's president-elect Sauli Niinistoe must come clean on key foreign policy issues such as NATO membership and relations with Russia, political observers said Monday, a day after his crushing election triumph.

Ninistoe, a conservative pro-European career politician and former finance minister, scored a resounding victory over Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto on Sunday, winning 62.6 percent of the vote to Haavisto's 37.4 percent.

Despite his convincing win after two rounds of campaigning and election voting, the president-elect has yet to say where he stands on major foreign policy issues, analysts noted.

The president's powers have gradually been cut back in recent years, with EU policymaking recently stripped from his brief and handed to the government. But other foreign policy is still decided jointly by the president and government.

"He did not give any political speech or give any indication of his future plans" after Sunday's victory, Janne Virkkunen, a former editor of Finland's daily of reference Helsingin Sanomat told reporters Monday, noting that NATO membership and ties with Moscow were not fully explored in pre-election debates.

Finland has a complex relationship with the North Atlantic alliance.

The small Nordic country is the only non-NATO European state bordering Russia, and its non-alignment with the military bloc is seen as an important tool for maintaining good relations with its hefty eastern neighbour, observers say.

It is however part of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme which engages non-NATO countries in bilateral relations.

Finland favours European-based military cooperation and is active in two European Union Rapid Deployment Forces.

Some observers suggested few changes lay ahead.

With recent surveys showing the country evenly split on the issue of NATO membership, neither Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen nor president-elect Niinistoe -- both from the conservative National Coalition Party -- are likely to want to seek membership anytime soon, according to Abo University research director Kimmo Groenlund.

All the same, "with a high level of support for membership among National Coalition supporters, Niinistoe may begin speaking more warmly about NATO" during his term as president, he added.

Before introducing the NATO question, though, Niinistoe will have to prepare the nation, Virkkunen countered, adding that "he did say he wants to have a referendum before Finland can join NATO."

Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen has meanwhile declared that his coalition government will not discuss the question of NATO membership during the current cabinet term, which ends in 2015, Virkkunen said.

Russia and Finland currently enjoy good relations, analysts said, noting however that Niinistoe failed to provide -- or avoided -- any clear position on ties with the Kremlin, particularly in light of ongoing anti-government rallies and charges of election fraud in Russia.

Niinistoe takes office in March, succeeding popular outgoing President Tarja Halonen who is stepping down after serving the maximum two six-year terms.

Halonen, a Social Democrat, has opposed NATO membership, and expressed concern about the Russian response to Baltic countries joining the military alliance.