The leader of the Social Democratic Party of Austria said he is considering inviting either the centre-right Austrian People's Party or the leftist Greens to hold coalition talks after his centre-left party won most of the seats in Sunday's election.

Alfred Gusenbauer, who appeared set to become they country's next chancellor, ruled out collaboration with Austria's two right-wing parties, the Freedom Party of Austria and the Alliance for Austria's Future.

Austrian Social Democratic Leader Alfred Gusenbauer has ruled out a coalition with the country's two conservative parties.
Austrian Social Democratic Leader Alfred Gusenbauer has ruled out a coalition with the country's two conservative parties.
(Hans Punz/Associated Press)
With absentee ballots yet to be counted, the Social Democrats have won 35.7 per cent of the vote, giving it the largest proportion of parliamentary seats, Interior Minister Liese Prokop said. Gusenbauer unseated Wolfgang Schüessel, head of the People's Party.

The People's Party came in second with 34.2 per cent, followed by the Freedom Party, which campaigned on an anti-foreigner platform, with 11.2 per cent, Prokop said.
 
The Greens came in fourth with 10.5 per cent. The Alliance had 4.2 per cent, just over the four per cent threshold needed to enter parliament.

But absentee ballots may yet change the complexion of any coalition. If the Alliance does not make it past four per cent of the vote, its seats would be redistributed, possibly allowing the Social Democrats and the Greens to form a coalition with a thin majority.

The current governing coalition is made up of the People's Party and the Alliance.

The Social Democrats made their gains on promises to lower the number of unemployed people by 100,000 and to reduce salary differences between men and women.

The incumbent People's Party campaigned on pledges to achieve full employment by 2010, lower taxes and create 15,000 new jobs in the areas of research and development. The party also said it opposed a general amnesty for foreigners who are in the country illegally.

Seventy-four percent of the electorate participated in Sunday's election.

With files from the Associated Press