Belgian PM set for second term

The victory means another four years in office for Mr Verhofstadt

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt is poised to form a new centre-left government after his coalition of Liberals and Socialists won the country's closely fought general election.

"This is a fantastic result. The government emerges stronger from these election results," Mr Verhofstadt told cheering members of his Flemish Liberal party.

Earlier, Stefaan De Clerck of the Flemish Christian Democrats - Mr Verhofstadt's main rivals - admitted defeat.

The general election also produced large gains for the far-right Flemish-nationalist party Vlaams Blok, which won the largest vote in its 25-year history, five months after race riots hit the port city of Antwerp.

Voters have given us the mandate to continue our work of modernisation and change in this country in the next few years

Guy Verhofstadt

In contrast the Green Party, a member of the old governing coalition, has suffered enormous losses.

Voters are said to have been angry with the Greens for their campaigns against arms exports to Nepal, night flights over Brussels and perhaps even more significantly a ban on tobacco advertising which cost Belgium its Formula One Grand Prix race.

Coalition achievements

According to the results announced on Belgian television four parties led by Mr Verhofstadt's Flemish Liberal Democrats (VLD) have won a combined total of 92 to 96 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

Filip de Winter's Vlaams Blok made large gains

Far right's rise

Belgium has a compulsory voting system and yet up to 10% abstained from the ballot in certain areas.

Mr Verhofstadt victory means a second term in office after four years at the head of a six-party rainbow coalition.

"Voters have given us the mandate to continue our work of modernisation and change in this country in the next few years," Mr Verhofstadt said.

The coalition between Mr Verhofstadt's free-market Liberals, the Socialists and the Greens has been fractious, but it has brought in a range of reforms in a once socially conservative country - legalising gay marriages and euthanasia and decriminalising cannabis.

Mr Verhofstadt says Belgium's economy has performed well in comparison with other European countries, but unemployment remains high.

Far-right gains

Correspondents say there will be weeks of post-election bargaining before a new coalition is formed.

But one party which will definitely not be coming to power is Vlaams Blok. None of the mainstream groups will negotiate with the far-right party.

Virgin Express offered free flights to anyone who voted in a swimsuit

Yet Vlaams Blok, which campaigns on a law and order and anti-immigrant platform, gained 17.9% of the vote in Flanders.

The party's president Frank Vanhecke said the party had scored a "historic victory" and demanded the other parties lift their "cordon sanitaire" which bans dealings with the far-right group.

The francophone National Front is also reported to have made in-roads in some areas of French-speaking Wallonia, Belgium's former industrial heartland.

The country is divided between the more prosperous and populous Dutch-speaking Flanders region in the north, and Wallonia.

Most parties are similarly split on linguistic lines, and governments must represent both linguistic groups.