KUWAIT CITY - Official results Sunday show Muslim hard-liners made strong gains in Kuwait's parliamentary elections but female candidates failed once again to win any seats.

Religious conservatives, both Sunnis and Shiites, gained two seats to hold 24 - nearly half of the 50-member parliament, according to results read on state-owned Kuwait Television.

Westernized liberals kept their four seats, and came close to sending the first woman to the parliament of the small oil-rich U.S. ally.

Aseel al-Awadi, a 39-year-old philosophy teacher, came eleventh in her district - the first 10 were declared winners.

Elections were held after relations between the cabinet and parliament broke down and Kuwait's ruler dissolved the legislature in March.

The outcome of Saturday's polls, however, doesn't bode well for ending those tensions as Kuwaitis voted mostly along tribal and sectarian lines, bringing back incumbents who promised them salary increases and vowed to use public money to forgive consumer debt - moves bitterly opposed by the government.

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