Ahern considers coalition options

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With just 20 Parliamentary seats left to be filled, his ruling Fianna Fail party looked on course to capture 78 seats - just five short of an overall majority.

Following the dramatic collapse of the Progressive Democrats' vote, whose leader and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McDowell quit politics after losing his seat, speculation was mounting that the Irish Republic could see its first ever Fianna Fail and Green Party coalition.

Trevor Sargent's party was sitting on five seats and hoping to return with six.

Another option would be for Fianna Fail to go into government with Pat Rabbitte's Labour, which could finish with 20 or 21 seats.

It would be an extraordinary about-turn, however, for Mr Rabbitte who previously ruled out a coalition with Fianna Fail and offered an alternative government during the election with Enda Kenny's Fine Gael.

A third option would be to go into government for a third successive term with the Progressive Democrats and bank on the support of a number of independent TDs, as in 1997.

But with the smaller parties, including Sinn Fein and the number of independent TDs, dramatically reduced as the two largest parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael prospered at the polls, the exact composition of the next government was not clear.

Senior Fianna Fail figures were keeping their cards close to their chest.