Speaking to reporters in Visby, Reinfeldt indicated that the government’s priority next year would be to bolster core welfare services.

“There won’t be any further tax cuts in 2011,” said the Prime Minister, whose party has pushed through a series of income tax cuts since coming into power in 2006.

“The most important thing now is to block any tax increases,” he added

Pensioners would be the only group exempted from the freeze on tax cuts, with Reinfeldt promising to deliver on earlier pledges to ease the tax burden for retirees.

As in the previous campaign, Reinfeldt accused the opposition of neglecting what he felt was the central election issue of job creation.

“For me this is a jobs election, founded on a basis of orderly public finances.”

The Prime Minister also rejected calls from Moderate Party members of the parliamentary defence committee for Sweden to join NATO.

“The issue is not currently on the agenda,” he said.

Reinfeldt is scheduled to give a speech in Visby later on Sunday. The Prime Minister is joined by the majority of Sweden’s political elite in the main town on the Baltic island of Gotland for the annual Almedalen Week gathering which began on Saturday.