A record number of Swedes say they intend to vote for the far-right Sweden Democrats in the country's general election next year, a new opinion poll published on Thursday showed.

The findings published in the tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet found that 5.6 percent of voters would vote for the right-wing party if an election was to be held today.

That represents an increase of 1.5 percentage points from a similar survey carried out one year ago.

If the Sweden Democrats achieve a similar result in the next general election in September 2010, they would win their first-ever seat in the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag.

In Sweden, political parties can only take a seat in parliament if they achieve at least four percent of the overall national vote or win more than 12 percent of the vote in an individual electoral constituency.

Carl Melin, who carried out the survey for pollsters UnitedMinds, said the Sweden Democrats appeared to be drawing support away from the Pirate Party voters.

The Sweden Democrats won 2.9 percent of the vote in the last general election of 2006.

Founded in 1988, the far-right party argues Sweden should remain a "homogeneous society" by drastically cutting the numbers of immigrants settling in the country.

UnitedMinds quizzed 1,066 Swedes from July 18 to August 12.