BELGIUM could be in for a long summer of negotiations before its new government is formed, following a potentially divisive election in which two parties of the right and left received the most votes.

Belgians are going to the polls today in general elections that are widely seen as a vote on an orderly break-up of a country where 6.5 million Dutch and four million French-speakers are locked in a quarrelsome union.

CLOSE to eight million Belgians will cast their votes tomorrow in a poll that could be another move towards splitting their country in two.