Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is confident he can win a third term for his centre-right coalition despite a meagre lead over the opposition four days before a general election.
Mr Rasmussen (54) called the election over a year early in the hope that a strong economy, tax cuts and record-low unemployment would secure him a third term.
But with polls showing him losing ground to rivals since last month's election call, he is facing a tough fight.
"That's always the paradox - during periods of crisis, people tend to stick to what they know, stick to security, while during an economic upturn they may be tempted to make experiments," Mr Rasmussen told Reuters.
His Liberal-Conservative coalition swept to power in 2001 and then won re-election in 2005 with promises to crack down on asylum-seekers and cut taxes.
A Catinet poll for the Danish news agency Ritzau showed his coalition and its political ally, the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party, at 48.2 percent. This would give them 88 out of the 179 seats in parliament, compared to 94 today.
The rival Social Democrat-led bloc, which includes three other leftist parties, polled at 45.5 per cent, equating to 83 seats.