Schandaal aan vooravond van Zweedse verkiezingen (en)

Sweden is in the grip of a Watergate-type political scandal just two weeks ahead of general elections on 17 September, with the country's ruling social democrat party saying the opposition liberal people's party has been hacking its computers since November last year.

A 24 year-old member of the liberal youth party confessed this morning to the unauthorised visits. "He has given his notice, been suspended and barred," the liberal party secretary, Johan Jakobsson, told the daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter.

The young man had accessed the social democrat party's intranet after coming across the log-in details of a local politician and gained access to secret campaign information as well as security communiques exchanged with the police forces.

"We have reported this to the police," the social democrat party's treasurer Tommy Ohlstrom said. "This is serious. We have been subject to an extensive and systematic infringement over a long period of time."

The scandal broke last week after a liberal party member grew unhappy about the dirty dealings and blew the whistle to press, with potentially more than just one party member involved.

The social democrats and prime minister Goran Persson and their parliamentary allies stand neck-and-neck with the centre-right opposition in the latest opinion polls out Friday (1 September).

The social democrats have governed the country for most of the post-war period with just a few brief interruptions, with the Nordic state normally associated with political transparency and fair play.