Stockholm - A Swedish party that condones file sharing and wants to change intellectual property laws could be voted into the European Parliament, according to a survey published Thursday.

The Pirate Party scored 5.1 per cent in the Synovate poll commissioned by Stockhom daily Dagens Nyheter. The party gained less than 1 per cent in the Swedish parliament elections in 2006, the same year it was formed.

File sharing has become a highly political issue in Sweden, not least among young men who appear to be the main supporters of the Pirate Party. The party was the second largest among men aged 18-29, the pollster suggested.

The poll of 1,496 people was conducted April 20-27.

Sweden this month introduced legislation that allows courts to order internet operators to hand over details that identify suspected illegal file sharers.

The country has also seen a highly publicized test case where four men where sentenced to year-long jail sentences for operating a website that allowed illegal file sharing. The four have appealed their sentences.

The survey for the June 7 elections to the European Parliament suggested that Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's conservative Moderate Party had 29.7 per cent - up over 10 percentage points on the 2004 European Parliament elections.

Reinfeldt's coalition partners, the Centre Party, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats, were roughly on the same levels as 2004.

The opposition Social Democrats were on 29.2 per cent, increasing their share of the vote by five percentage points. Support for the Left Party was halved while the Greens were slightly up.

Judging from the poll, the EU-sceptical June List that scored a surprising 14 per cent in 2004 would fail to clear the parliamentary hurdle.