Ireland\'s new leader vows to hit ground running

Kenny looks certain to be taoiseach, or prime minister, after the ruling Fianna Fail party of incumbent Brian Cowen suffered a crushing defeat by voters angry at the collapse of their once booming economy and the subsequent bailout.

But the 59-year-old Fine Gael leader told supporters in Dublin late Saturday there was "no time to lose, no hour to waste" as he confronted the challenges ahead, not least the form of the government he will lead.

Exit polls and early results suggest the centrist party will not win a majority in the 166-seat Dail, the lower house of parliament, and several top Fine Gael figures indicated a coalition with the opposition Labour party was likely.

With 131 seats declared on Sunday, Fine Gael had 59 seats, Labour had 31, Fianna Fail had just 14 and the republican Sinn Fein party had 13, including its president Gerry Adams, who entered the Dail for the first time.

Kenny said he would be looking at his party\'s options on Sunday but stressed he would be "deciding on this very quickly", saying it was important to international markets that Ireland had a "stable and strong government".

He also vowed to move fast on a key campaign pledge to renegotiate the 85-billion-euro ($115-billion) bailout agreed with the European Union and International Monetary Fund in November, which many Irish see as a humiliation.

"We\'re going to move on this next week, I\'ve already had contacts with Europe this very day," Kenny said in his first post-election TV interview.

Cowen\'s Fianna Fail party meanwhile slumped to its worst ever defeat in the elections and looked set to lose two thirds of its seats. It suffered a wipeout in Dublin, with only outgoing finance minister Brian Lenihan keeping his seat.

"Clearly today there wasn\'t support for our party in great numbers. We accept as democrats the outcome," Cowen said, after his government became the first to fall as a result of the debt crisis in the 17-country eurozone.

Newspapers described the routing of Fianna Fail, which has dominated Irish politics for the last 80 years, as a "political earthquake".

"History is made as huge FG surge wipes FF off the map," headlined the Sunday Independent, saying Fianna Fail\'s defeat was "utterly stunning".

But it warned there was no time to lose for the winners, saying Ireland was "ruled by a scorched earth of debt" and Kenny must immediately seek changes to the bailout with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other EU leaders.

"Our taoiseach-in-waiting is going to have to move quickly to end the scenario where the dwindling resources of private citizens are being cannibalised to meet the demands of Ms Merkel and our public-sector Petains, who would destroy the state to retain their privileged days," it said, referring to the head of France\'s collaborationist government in World War II.

Kenny, a former teacher, is the longest serving lawmaker in the Dail and viewed as a steady pair of hands, but he has his task cut out to fulfil his pledge on the bailout.

In the interview, he said it was a "bad deal for Ireland and for Europe", adding: "I see room for manoeuvre in terms of interest rates and in terms of the cost of the banking structure. We\'ll move on this very quickly."

But in Brussels late Saturday the European Commission insisted that the incoming Irish government stick to the promises made to reduce the country\'s budget deficit and made no mention of a renegotiation of the bailout.

Its economics spokesman Amadeu Altafaj told AFP: "The commission will continue to support Ireland and its next government in carrying out the programme... which is essential for the Irish economy."

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