STOCKHOLM, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The first of three major debates has taken place between Swedish Social Democratic Prime Minister Goeran Persson and his chief rival -- opposition moderate conservative party leader Frederik Reinfeldt, as the Swedish campaign moves into its final days for Sept. 17 local and parliamentary elections,.

    Employment was the hot topic as the two rivals for the prime minister job clashed in a televised "duel" on Wednesday evening.

    Both politicians collided over ways to provide more jobs in Sweden -- with the prime minister attacking conservative plans to cut unemployment benefits as no way to put more people to work.

    Goeran Persson painted a rosy picture of the Swedish economy, claiming that 550 new jobs are being created every day and asking why Sweden should change its successful policies.

    But at the same time he admitted that employment was the election's key issue.

    Persson attacked Reinfeldt for the opposition's proposal to reduce the benefits for the unemployed, demanding to know how that would lead to more jobs.

    Reinfeldt claimed that reduced income tax, lower costs to employers and better matching of jobs to job seekers would create more jobs.

    The Moderates' leader also said that the Social Democrats had abandoned vocational training, and that 1.5 million people were stuck outside the walls of the Swedish labor market.

    On the subject of healthcare, both men were agreed that Sweden should have a publicly financed system, that emergency care usually worked well, and that there were problems with access to less acute care.

    The two men will meet again on Friday in a debate on Swedish Radio P1. Then on Sunday they will be back on television, on SVT1.

    Meanwhile, two polls published earlier this week showed the opposition alliance is still leading the left-wing bloc by a small margin, less than two weeks before the election.

    The ruling Social Democrats and their Left Party and Green Party allies have the support of 47.1 percent of the Swedish electorate, while the opposition center right parties are supported by 48.2 percent, according to the latest Sifo poll published in the Svenska Dagbladet. Enditem