Sun Apr 13, 7:52 PM ET

VALLETTA (AFP) – Malta's pro-EU ruling Nationalist Party (PN) won a general election that confirmed the Mediterranean archipelago's wish to join an enlarged European Union.

Prime Minister Eddie Fenech-Adami told a jubilant rally outside his party's headquarters he would travel to Athens on Wednesday to sign the EU accession treaty, making Malta the southernmost outpost of Europe.

With counting of votes cast in Saturday's election ongoing, Fenech-Adami claimed victory and his Labour Party opponent Alfred Sant conceded defeat on the strength of early projections based on a sample of the vote.

The final result delivered by the electoral commission early on Monday gave the PN 51.7 percent, the Labour Party 47.6 and an ecology party Alternativa Demokrattika 0.7 percent.

The PN will have 34 seats in the new parliament, one less than in the outgoing assembly, with Labour taking an extra seat, giving it 31 in the 65-seat parliament.

More importantly for Brussels, the result validates a narrow Yes vote in last month's non-binding consultative referendum on joining an enlarged European Union, in the process sparking noisy street parties throughout the capital Valletta.

“This is second confirmation in a very short time of the country's desire to join the European Union,” Fenech-Adami said, referring to the March 8 referendum in which 53 percent voted Yes to Europe.

Under Malta's constitution, that vote had to be confirmed by a general election.

Fenech-Adami said the vote “brings honour to the country. Now the other 24 EU and accession states will look on us with confidence as a stable country.”