Elections in Hungary look set to diminish further any hopes of a liberalisation of the country's land market, where tight regulations have depressed values to 10% of those in Denmark or Italy.

Latest polls suggest that the centre right Fidesz party will gain a strong parliamentary majority in a general election on Sunday, ending eight years in opposition.

Fidesz has pledged, in pre-election campaigning, to extend indefinitely a ban on foreigners buying Hungarian farmland, a curb allowed only as an interim measure by Brussels when the country acceded to the European Union six years ago.

"Foreigners will never buy arable land here, no matter what they decide in Brussels," Fidesz leader Viktor Orban said, according to reports in national news agency MTI.

"We will continue to protect our most important national property and treasure � the land."

A ban is also supported by Jobbik, a far right party which is lying third in the polls after the ruling Socialist party.

Hungary is expected to overtake Italy this year as EU's second-ranked producer of corn, and is already the region's second biggest producer of sunflowers, ranking behind France in both crops.

Three-year plan 

Mr Orban's stance appears more extreme than that of the Socialist government which, while also reluctant to open up land ownership, has signalled a less aggressive tone in dealing with Brussels.

Such curbs break EU laws protecting the free movement of capital.

The ministry has also suggesting doubling to 600 hectares the limit on individual ownership, and easing restrictions - notably for livestock enterprises - which permit land to be held only by citizens, rather than businesses.

"Commercial dairy farmers, for example, have to use rented land now, and this may discourage them from making long  term investments," a report from the US Department of Agriculture's Budapest bureau said.

Cut price land 

The restrictions have helped make Hungarian land amongst the cheapest in Europe, despite its agricultural potential.

Land in neighbouring Austria achieves three times as much, with acres in Denmark and Italy, two of Europe's most expensive countries for buying farms, valued 10 times as highly.

Values are also depressed by a "confused" ownership structure.

"The majority of agricultural land is in the hands of non-farm owners or inactive, old proprietors in a patchwork of small parcels," the report said.

Some plots, even as small as 50 hectares, "are owned collectively by hundreds of small proprietors".