Bucharest, Dec 8 (IANS): Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban announced his resignation, after the ruling National Liberal Party (PNL) he leads failed to achieve its goal of scoring the best in Sunday's parliamentary election.

The move is generally considered to also clear the way for his party to negotiate a future ruling alliance with other political parties.

"The decision I took has a very precise objective...the negotiations to follow must lead to a government formed by the center-right political formations to clearly support Romania's Euro-Atlantic orientation," Orban said after announcing his resignation late Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Although the vote counting has not yet ended, the partial results have emerged and there will be no major changes. Not only did the ruling PNL fail to get first place in the general election, but the gap with its main opponent Social Democrats reached a significant five percentage points.

The partial results show that the PNL, with 25 per cent of the votes, must form a ruling coalition with other future parliamentary parties with similar political concepts to ensure its continuation of the ruling. The USR-PLUS Alliance, with some 15 per cent of votes, is indispensable in this regard, but the latter has repeatedly emphasized that it is impossible to participate in a cabinet led by Orban.

Romania held the parliamentary election on Sunday, with a total of 7,136 candidates competing for seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The partial results show that no party is likely to win more than 50 per cent of the votes to hold the majority in the future parliament. Thus, the future government will almost certainly be a coalition one.