Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she started negotiating with independent lawmakers Sunday in a bid to cling to power because no major party won a majority of parliamentary seats in Australia's general elections.

Gillard said she hoped to enlist support for her center-left Labor Party and has held preliminary talks with three independents in the House of Representatives, an independent candidate whose seat is not yet assured and a lawmaker from the Greens party.

Both the center-left Labor, which had ruled for the past three years, and the conservative Liberal Party-led coalition opposition have conceded that neither is likely to claim the 76 seats needed to form government in the 150-seat House of Representatives.

With 78 percent of the vote counted, the Australian Electoral Commission said Labor had won 70 seats — one less than earlier calculated — and the coalition 71. Most analysts agree that the coalition was likely to finish with 73 — a single seat advantage over Labor.

With the final result of several seats hanging in the balance, the Prime Minister has today held preliminary talks with the three incumbent independents, possible new independent Andrew Wilkie and Greens MP Adam Bandt.

It is now predicted that Labor and the Coalition will end up in a dead heat of 73 seats each.