The ruling Nationalist Party (NP) of Prime Minister Eddie Fenech-Adami holds a 20-point lead over the anti-EU opposition Labour Party in the latest opinion poll.

However, the partisan nature of politics on the tiny Mediterranean archipelago means that gap is expected to close to a few points in the final days of a divisive campaign dominated by Europe.

Malta last month became the first of 10 candidate countries to hold a consultative referendum on joining an enlarged EU, voting Yes by a narrow margin, though the result of that poll hinges on Saturday's election.

In a divisive campaign largely fought over Europe, the Labour Party has said it will not recognise the referendum result if it wins, and the 18 percent of undecided voters may yet swing things its way.

Its leader Alfred Sant said he would not travel to Athens on April 16 to sign the EU accession agreement as prime minister-elect.

The threat is likely to send a shudder through Brussels where EU Commission officials are anxious for a result which will dispel a eurosceptic ripple-effect in the other candidate countries.

Some 50 million voters across Europe will be asked to vote in referendums across the candidate countries over the next few months, ahead of their joining the EU in 2004.

Fenech-Adami told a meeting on the archipelago's second island of Gozo that his party would not take victory for granted simply because of the 54 percent to 46 percent referendum result.

"I am using all my energy to deliver the message on the need for a Nationalist government to be elected in order to ensure that the democratic will of the people be respected, and that Malta will sign the EU accession treaty next week," he said.

Sant said he would negotiate a partnership agreement with the EU, rather than membership, which he argues would mean tiny Malta -- which would replace Luxembourg as the smallest EU state -- would be lose its identity.

He wrote in the Times newspaper that Malta must retain its "flexibility" in its dealings with Europe: "that is what happens with out preferred way forward -- partnership".

"The time for arrogance is over. The time for cooperation, and for implementing urgent and common tasks in the interests of our people is overdue."

Fenech-Adami has admitted that the decision of the small ecologist "Alternattiva Demokratika" party to field its own candidates "poses a threat to the NPs chances of obtaining an absolute majority in an election. Things are uncertain enough vis-a-vis the Labour Partys position. We do not need to take more risks."

Turnout usually hovers around 95 percent in Maltese elections, with 91 percent casting votes in the referendum last month.