LONDON - Britain's opposition, the Conservative Party, were in pole position to take power on Friday after winning the most seats in parliament in a bitterly fought election and securing the tentative backing of the third-largest party.

Conservative leader David Cameron will now start work on brokering a deal with the Liberal Democrats' leader Nick Clegg, whose party finished third, in order to form a government.

The 43-year-old, who could become the country's youngest prime minister for 200 years, said he was prepared to explore the possibility of running a minority government, but would first make a coalition offer to the centrist Lib Dems.

After winning his seat, Cameron said Labour, the party that has led the country since 1997, had lost its right to govern.

"I believe it is already clear that the Labour government has lost its mandate to govern our country," he said. "We will stand ready to do all that we can to help bring that leadership, to help bring strong, stable, decisive and good government for our country."

Speaking outside his No 10 Downing Street home on Friday, Brown said the Conservatives should now be given time to attempt to form a coalition government.

As the incumbent he has the constitutional right to remain in office to try and form alliances with other parties to command an overall majority. But the combined Labour and Lib Dem seats would still be insufficient to form a majority.

Brown said he will speak to the Lib Dems if talks with the Conservatives proved unsuccessful, and again stressed his support for electoral reform, a key Lib Dem demand.

With results in 637 constituencies declared, the Tories were on 301 seats, followed by Labour on 255 and the Lib Dems on 54. The lack of an outright winner able to command 326 seats in the House of Commons brings smaller parties into play.

"It seems that it is the Conservative party that has more votes and more seats, though not an absolute majority, and that is why I think it is now for the Conservative party to prove that it is capable of seeking to govern in the national interest," Nick Clegg, leader of the Lib Dems, told reporters in London.

He added, however, that Britain's "first past the post" electoral system was "broken" and he would continue to fight for electoral reform.

Clegg must have been disappointed with Thursday's vote. After outshining his party rivals on a series of three televised debates (the first time they had been held in a British election), his party was forecast to make major advances. Yet the Lib Dems actually lost six seats.

The last time there was hung parliament in February 1974, Edward Heath, then-Conservative prime minister, remained in office for just three days. However, any new government faces the daunting and potentially unpopular task of bringing down a record budget deficit of 163 billion pounds ($240 billion).Cameron described it as the worst inheritance faced by any incoming government for at least 60 years.

Britain needs a government to reassure jittery markets that it is serious about tackling the deficit, which exceeds 11 percent of national output, said the Conservative leader on Friday.

CHINA DAILY