Canada's Quebec set for March 26 election - paper

OTTAWA, Feb 5 (Reuters) Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec looks set to hold an election on March 26, pitting the Liberal government against separatists who want independence, the La Presse newspaper reported today.

The Liberals of Prime Minister Jean Charest are ahead of the separatist Parti Quebecois in the polls for the first time since 2004. Charest won a five-year term in 2003.

Charest had been expected to call the election late in March after a policy convention, with the province of 7.5 million people going to the polls late in April or early in May.

But the La Presse report said Liberal party leaders had decided yesterday to postpone the convention.

''The Liberal Party of Quebec took decisions yesterday confirming that Jean Charest will bring forward the general election.

Everything is now in place for an early campaign launched around Feb. 21 for a March 26 vote,'' it said.

The Parti Quebecois has stumbled repeatedly since electing Andre Boisclair as its new leader in November 2005. At the start of 2006, the party was 16 points ahead of the Liberals but it is now slightly behind.

The Parti Quebecois has said that if it wins the election, it will call a referendum on whether the province should break away from Canada. Similar province-wide votes on independence failed in 1980 and 1995.

REUTERS DKA PM1848