AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch Socialists, strong performers in a string of recent polls, lost ground to their Labour rivals less than two weeks ahead of a parliamentary election dominated by the euro zone crisis, a survey showed on Friday.
The hard-left party, which is campaigning for looser budget deficit targets for Europe, had capitalised on widespread discontent over austerity measures imposed by the ruling pro-Europe Liberals in recent months.
Polls through August showed the Socialists neck-and-neck with or even ahead of the Liberals, who are led by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
But Friday's Ipsos Synovate poll showed the Socialists would win 27 seats in the 150-seat assembly, down from the 30 forecast by the same organisation last week.
Friday's poll gave Labour 26 seats, up from 22 a week earlier. Commentators said Labour may have been boosted by strong performances by its leader Diederik Samsom in two recent television debates.
The figures left the Liberals comfortably ahead of the pack with a projected 34 seats. That result that would leave them the biggest party in parliament but needing an alliance with other groups to take power.
Any coalition could take weeks, if not months, to negotiate.
While fiscally conservative Netherlands is considered a core euro zone member, the run-up to the election has highlighted growing discontent among voters over Europe - in particular over the high cost of bailing out weaker euro zone states and the pressure for belt-tightening at home.
Rutte's Liberal Party and its coalition partner, the Christian Democrats, have pushed for spending cuts to bring the Netherlands' budget deficit below 3 percent of economic output by 2013, in line with European rules.
The table below shows the number of seats in parliament won at the last election, and the equivalent based on recent polls.
(Reporting by Roberta Cowan; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
