Greek leftist Syriza party keeps lead over ruling conservatives

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek leftist opposition party Syriza remains ahead of the ruling conservatives in the polls, three surveys showed on Friday, with one indicating a marginal rise in its lead and two others a slight closing of the gap ahead of a snap election.

A survey by pollsters Marc for television station Alpha showed the lead for Syriza, which opposes Greece's international bailout programme, had widened to 3.2 points from the 3 point lead it had in a poll by the same firm last month.

The party would garner 29.6 percent of the vote compared with the centre right New Democracy party on 26.4 percent in an election that is being closely watched across Europe.

In a poll by company Rass, however, Syriza saw its lead narrow from 3.1 points to 2.7 points.

Leftist Alexis Tsipras' Syriza would get 29.8 percent in a snap election due on Jan. 25, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' party, which has pushed through unpopular austerity measures, on 27.1 percent.

That compares to a lead of 3.1 points in a poll published by the same firm last week, which includes undecided voters and those who said they would spoil their ballot paper.

A third survey, conducted by Metron Analysis and due to be published in the Parapolitika newspaper on Saturday, showed Syriza would win 34.1 percent of the vote if elections were held now, a lead of 4.1 percent.

Samaras's New Democracy party would take 30 percent of the vote in the poll, which excludes undecided voters.

The same pollster showed a lead of 4.2 percent for Syriza in a previous survey last month. Several opinion polls by various firms in recent days have shown Syriza ahead but with a narrowing lead.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos and Renee Maltezou; Writing by Costas Pitas; Editing by Hugh Lawson)