STOCKHOLM, Nov. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Denmark's Social Democrats won more than 40 percent of possible mayoral posts in the country's local elections, including in the two biggest cities, reports from Copenhagen said on Wednesday.

    According to early results on Wednesday, the Social Democrats held on to the mayoral post in Copenhagen and won it from the Liberals in the second city of Aarhus.

    "It's going to be exciting to see whether the party can use it in national politics," Denmark's news agency Ritzau quoted political scientist Roger Buch from Denmark's School of Journalismas saying.

    The Social Democrats staged a comeback on Tuesday in local elections with 34.4 percent of the vote, nearly 10 percent up fromwhat were the worst results the party recorded in general elections in February.

    Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Liberals, which won 31.2 percent of the vote in February, won 27.5 percent in the elections to the Nordic country's 98 town councils.

    The Danish People's Party, Denmark's third biggest party after the Liberals and the Social Democrats, won 5.9 percent, up from 5.4 percent in 2001.

    The elections, with a total turnout of 69.4 percent of the 4.2 million eligible voters, have been dominated by such local issues as schools, care for the elderly, and transportation.

    Denmark's participation in the war in Iraq was not an issue in the campaign. Enditem