Nipte verkiezingszege centrumrechts in Tsjechië (en)

The main Czech conservative party has won the country's parliamentary elections held on Friday and Saturday (2-3 June) but it remains unlikely that it will set up a majority government coalition.

The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) tops the election results table with 35.4 percent of the votes, followed by the former ruling party - Social Democrats - (32.3%), the communists (12.8%), the christian democrats (7.2%) and the greens (6.3%), according to press reports.

Around 64.5 percent of Czech voters turned out to cast their ballot.

The vote has produced an exact divide between the right and left-leaning parties, with a hundred MPs on both sides.

Doubts have emerged over the chances of any of the front runners forming a cabinet, with analysts saying the elections have left the country in a political stalemate.

The weekend poll came after an unprecedented campaign centred around the two largest centre-left and centre-right parties' leaders, full of last-minute allegations of corruption against both camps.

Shortly after the elections, the social democrat CSSD chief and outgoing prime minister Jiri Paroubek said he might challenge the result in court, referring to what he called slanderous attacks on him from the conservatives in the run-up to the voting.

The statement provoked an angry reaction fromCzech president Vaclav Klaus, the ODS founder, suggesting he was "shocked" at the fact that "democracy and results of free elections should be questioned and the citizens' votes scorned over."

Nevertheless, the ODS leader, Mirek Topolanek, maintained he did not intend to exclude the social democrats from the coalition talks, signalling a possible emergence of a "grand coalition" as in neighbouring Germany.

Such a grand coalition government would have a clear majority in the country's 200-member lower chamber, as the ODS holds 81 and the CSSD 74 votes in the parliament.

But Mr Paroubek said he would advise his party colleagues to go into opposition and it is unclear whether they will follow his opinion or agree to join the ODS in a coalition.

Question marks over Czech policy on Europe

The narrowly winning conservatives have promised to cut taxes and to reform the health care and pension systems - the main policy-related topics that dominated the campaign.

Czech policy on Europe did not feature in the pre-election debate, despite strong differences between the two leading parties.

The conservatives follow a eurosceptic tradition established by their founder Vaclav Klaus and are opposed to any attempts to revive the EU constitution.

The party's members represented in the European Parliament are considering leaving the European People's Party, which they see as federalist and joining the British conservatives in a possible new parliamentary group instead.

But according to observers, the Czech ODS is likely to be less confrontational when in government than during its opposition period.