Albania's ruling Democratic Party claimed it won the 71 parliamentary seats needed to form a government on Wednesday, but the opposition Socialist Party accused them of cheating in a closely fought election.

Unofficial results showed Prime Minister Sali Berisha's 17-party Democrat-led coalition lacked one additional seat to give it a majority, with 70 seats against the Socialists' 66, after 98 percent of the votes had been counted.

The Socialist Integration coalition had four seats. Parliament has 140 seats. Several thousand votes had yet to be counted and the two sides disagreed over their validity.

"Our alliance will govern Albania for the next four years. I invite the election administration to end their work to confirm officially what I am telling you now," Democratic Party spokesperson Majlinda Bregu told reporters.

"All our calculations show we have 71 mandates. The coalition that will govern Albania will be a stable coalition that will take Albania into Europe," she said.

Under the regional proportional system, applied for the first time, all results must come in before the final result is calculated. The tight race was unprecedented for Albania and commentators forecast the next government will be weak.

Contrary to comment from international observers, Bregu said Albania had also won a victory in meeting election standards. Monitors said violations persisted despite improvements.

The European Union, which is closely watching the vote for signs Albania's democracy will qualify for membership, said the election fell short of international standards.

Soon after Bregu's announcement, the Socialists said the Democrats were stealing mandates by applying pressure on and intimidating counters and officials who would certify the final results.

"Their claim of victory is part of ill-starred plan to steal our victory. They don't have 71 mandates and are calculating some of our mandates as theirs," said the Socialists' election programme secretary Ditmir Bushati.

THREAT OF PROTESTS

In some constituencies, the vote count has stopped partly because of rows over breaches of procedure.

Unless the Democrats stopped what Bushati termed as "fierce pressure" against the opposition vote counters, the opposition supporters would turn out to defend the votes they had cast.

He added the Socialists would not back down until they won back votes won through police and thugs corrupting or threatening Socialist election officials.

"The verdict of the Albanian people has not been fully read and has also been distorted. Refrain from violence and take our voice very seriously," Bushati said.

Pandeli Majko, a former Socialist premier, said the result would not be known until the last box was counted. "One or two seats in the next parliament will go to the left. Allow us to count the last ballot boxes," Majko told Top Channel television.

Both parties favour European integration, market reforms, improved infrastructure and modernising agriculture. The Socialists say they would turn to the International Monetary Fund for help, but Berisha has been cautious about this.