Mrs Thatcher was always confident

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Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party has won a landslide second term election victory, taking 397 seats to Labour's 209.

The SDP Liberal Alliance, fighting its first national contest, won just 23 seats under the 'first-past-the-post' electoral system, despite receiving nearly as many votes as Labour.

Mrs Thatcher announced the forthcoming parliament would have a "heavy programme", featuring some of the bills which fell before the election.

She also pledged to re-organise local authorities and to introduce bills on trade unions and rates.

Parliament is to meet for the first time next week, when the speaker of the House will be sworn in.

The prime minister said her first priority for the new term would be to reshuffle her cabinet. She insisted it would reflect a range of political views, saying, "I haven't been extreme for the last four years and I'm not extreme now".

Defeated Labour Party leader Michael Foot described the result as a tragedy for the country.

He said: "I agree with those who said the fight to win the next election starts immediately and of course I accept, to the full, my responsibilities in this election".

Mr Foot strongly attacked the SDP for siphoning support away from Labour - giving more seats to the Conservatives.

The SDP Liberal Alliance blamed Britain's 'winner takes all' electoral system on its failure to convert its significant electoral support into seats in parliament.

David Steel said: "I feel a real sense of outrage at the vast number of votes we picked up with so little to show for it in the way of seats."

King Hussein inspects the Jordanian frontline with Israel in the 1967 war

The king was said to be unharmed but it is understood his driver was wounded in the attack, which took place in the town of Sweileh, 12 miles (19km) northeast of the capital, Amman.

One report said the king jumped out of his car and fired back at the attackers.

The shooting follows two days of fighting between Palestinian guerrillas and Jordanian troops in and around Amman in which up to 400 people are said to have been killed.

Stray bullet

The city is surrounded by Jordanian troops with Palestinian gunmen controlling the city centre and main routes.

Fighting has also spread to the airport and passengers flying out of Amman today have told of a porter killed when he was hit by a bullet as they got onto their plane.

Earlier Amman Radio denied reports the army commander-in-chief, Major-General Nasser Ben Jamil, the king's uncle, had been killed in the violence.

Palestinian guerrillas blame the Jordanian army for the latest flare-up in fighting, saying it is a direct result of the heavy shelling of Palestinian refugee camps.

Following the 1967 war with Israel, Jordan lost the West Bank of the Jordan River. Thousands of Palestinian refugees fled into Jordan, swelling the refugee population to two million.

From their new base in Jordan, Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organisation began launching military operations against Israel, drawing bloody reprisals that killed and injured Jordanians.

Feelings of anger among Palestinians have been exacerbated by King Hussein's involvement in Middle East peace moves which have involved talks with Israel.

The leader of Al Fatah, the largest of the Palestinian guerrilla groups, has said any Arab Head of State trying to reach a peaceful settlement with Israel will be murdered.

King Hussein has survived an attempt on his life before. When his grandfather King Abdullah was assassinated in 1951, he was hit by a stray bullet in the same attack.

Last October the government revealed details of a plot to overthrow King Hussein. Two months later 14 members of the Islamic Liberation Party were sentenced to death.

A second plot to topple the king was uncovered in March and there have been recent rumours of another US-backed plot to replace the king with his brother Crown Prince Hassan.