Scottish nationalist victory ushers in new era

By Katherine Baldwin

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Politicians were preparing for tough talks on forming a new Scottish government on Saturday after an election win that nationalists hope could be a first step towards ending a 300-year-old union with England.

The Scottish National Party (SNP), who want independence from Britain, ended the 50-year dominance in Scotland of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party in Thursday's elections, transforming the political landscape.

The SNP's capture of 47 out of the 129 seats in the Scottish parliament is a 20-seat improvement on its results in the 2003 elections and give it a one seat advantage over Labour.

SNP leader Alex Salmond will have to woo members of the Liberal Democrats, who won 16 seats, and the Green party with two seats to form a coalition that commands a majority or try to make do with a minority.

"I think there's a mood of change which is the evident thing from this election," Salmond said as he posed for photographs outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh with SNP lawmakers.

Alternatively, Labour and the Liberal Democrats could attempt to form their own coalition.

The 52-year-old Salmond said there had been informal conversations but so far no formal negotiations on coalition.

Whatever the results of those efforts, the SNP victory poses a headache for Chancellor Gordon Brown, the 56-year-old Scot who is almost certain to succeed Blair as prime minister in the next two months.