国际英语新闻：Major British party leaders in last lap of election campaign

LONDON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- All three major party leaders were out on the road campaigning on Wednesday in the final days before the general election on Thursday.

Frontrunner David Cameron, leader of the main opposition Conservative party, was keen to demonstrate his energy as he embarked on a campaign that kept him awake through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. Cameron met nightworkers like bakers and fishermen.

Earlier he had made the highly unusual move of traveling to Northern Ireland. British party leaders hardly ever campaign in the province, because it has its own long-established political parties, which are based on sectarianism.

But the tacit support of the Ulster Unionist members of parliament (and in the last parliament there was only one) may well prove crucial for Cameron to take power after an election, which opinion polls are still saying will produce no party strong enough to form a majority government.

The Daily Telegraph, the most loyal of the Conservative national newspapers, reported on Tuesday that Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which is defending nine seats at this election, was prepared to form a coalition with the Conservatives.