Finland's ruling Centre Party won a narrow victory in yesterday's election, but the conservative National Coalition Party made strong gains to come a close second and set a course for a place in a new coalition cabinet.

The National Coalition won 50 seats in the 200-member parliament - one fewer than the Centre Party and ahead of the 45 seats of the Social Democrats, the current partners in the cabinet, official figures showed, with more than 99 per cent of votes counted.

But Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told cheering supporters his Centre Party had hung on to its leading position.

"The result is clear. We are number 1 in votes and number 1 in seats," he told supporters at a central Helsinki hotel.

Politicians avoided confrontation with potential allies while out hunting for votes, and the campaigns focused mainly on care for the elderly, health and issues like climate change. Four years ago the Centre Party narrowly edged out the SDP, winning the premiership and ending eight years of coalition between the Social Democrats and conservatives.

Finland, home to Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, has been enjoying the strongest economic growth of all euro zone economies, but many Finns worry the good times may not last.

Despite its strong economic growth, it faces increasing competition from lower-cost countries in some key industries, including high technology and electronics and the paper and pulp sectors.

Among voters' main concerns were the rapidly ageing population, with yesterday's election likely to be the last where employed people make up a majority of voters.

A major topic of discussion on the campaign trail was the future of Finnish social services, as the number of pensioners grows and the workforce shrinks.

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