Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Monday received a mandate to form a new government, one day after voters swept him and his ruling New Democracy party back to power in Sunday's parliamentary election.

"We are fully aware of our responsibilities toward the people, regardless of what they voted," Karamanlis said after his customary meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias.

The president gave Karamanlis the mandate to form a government.

Karamanlis raised his party's banner of reforms when speaking to the nation in a televised statement in Athens after his party clinched its re-election, saying that the result was a clear mandate from the people for his government to carry out the reforms.

Karamanlis and his party were re-elected after winning about 41.84 percent of the votes and a working majority of 152 seats in the 300-member single-chamber parliament.

The main opposition PASOK party posted a slump with 38.1 percent of the votes and 102 seats in the parliament.

The two left parties, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), posted a strong showing, gaining 8.15 percent and 5.04 percent of the votes respectively. The KKE won 22 seats and the SYRIZA won 14 seats, nearly doubling their parliamentary seats.

The Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) party, with 3.79 percent of the votes and 10 seats, became the newcomer to the first-ever five-party parliament.

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2007)