Uri Party chief Chung Dong-young (L) wants President Roh reinstated

"Many Koreans must have woken up this morning to find that the nation's political landscape has undergone a major quake," said the Korean Herald.

The left-leaning Uri Party won 152 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly, giving it a slim majority.

The result is a boost for President Roh Moo-hyun, who was impeached last month.

Mr Roh is not a member of the Uri Party, but it is made up of reformist legislators loyal to him.

"Our people wrote a new history of elections," Acting President Goh Kun said in a televised address.

ELECTION RESULTS Uri Party - 152 seats GNP - 121 seats Democratic Labour Party - 10 seats Millennium Democratic Party - 9 seats United Liberal Democratic Party - 4 seats Independents - 3 seats Poll buoys S Korea economic hopes

"With this election, I hope a new era of politics of coexistence and co-operation will be born," he said.

"The election results have shown political maturity, This will greatly help the economy's international credibility," said Minister of Finance and Economy Lee Hun-jai.

Months of political infighting culminated on 12 March in a vote to impeach President Roh by the then conservative-controlled parliament.

The main charge against Mr Roh was that he violated his neutrality as president by publicly supporting the Uri Party, but analysts say the charges against Mr Roh were relatively minor, and the stand-off had more to do with jockeying for power ahead of the elections.

The Uri Party pledged no dramatic shifts in foreign or economic policy, but did urge the parties that unseated Mr Roh to withdraw their impeachment vote.

"Although there is a legal process, the impeachment is a political product of the National Assembly and is a political issue," said Chung Dong-young, leader of the Uri Party.

Mr Roh's powers have been suspended until the Constitutional Court rules, by mid-September, on whether to uphold that vote. Many analysts believe it will take the election outcome into account.

If Mr Roh is returned to power, the BBC's correspondent in Seoul, Charles Scanlon, says he will be in a much stronger position to push through his liberal agenda.

Mr Roh came to office promising a foreign policy more independent of the US, but during his first year in power he has pursued more pragmatic policies, including co-operating with Washington's hard line on North Korea.

Cheney talks

North Korea dominated talks on Friday between South Korean officials and US Vice President Dick Cheney, who arrived in Seoul as the elections were under way.

Mr Cheney warned China earlier in the week that "time is not necessarily on our side" regarding the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula, reportedly citing new evidence of North Korea's nuclear programmes.

The US deputy is also in the region to shore up support for Washington's military mission in Iraq.

South Korea currently has a few hundred military medics and engineers in Iraq, but is planning to send 3,000 combat and non-combat troops.