REYKJAVIK (AFP) - Iceland's centre-right opposition scored a clear victory in the island's parliamentary poll, allowing the two parties to kick off negotiations for a coalition government, a final count on Sunday showed.

The right-wing Independence Party was ahead in the popular vote with 26.7 per cent, giving it 19 seats in Parliament, and its leader Bjarni Benediktsson was expected to seek a government with the support of the agrarian-centrist Progressive Party, which got 24.4 per cent of the vote and also 19 legislative seats.