Exit polls show Greece's national election is too close to call according to a joint poll by five pollsters.

Greece's conservative New Democracy party taking between 27.5 percent and 30.5 percent of the vote was barely ahead of radical leftist SYRIZA party with 27-30 percent, followed by the PASOK Socialists taking 10-12 percent of the vote.

Exit polls in an earlier May 6 election, which produced stalemate, gave a good indication of the way the vote had gone.

The party that comes in first secures a dividend of 50 parliamentary seats which will be crucial to its chances of forming a new government.

SYRIZA has vowed to tear up the terms of an EU/IMF bailout package keeping Greece from bankruptcy, potentially sending the country crashing out of Europe's single currency. New Democracy broadly backs the bailout, as does PASOK.

Greece's lenders say a new government must accept the conditions of a 130-billion-euro ($164-billion) Greek bailout agreed in March or funds will be cut off, driving Athens into bankruptcy.

A Greek euro exit has the potential to unleash shocks that could even break up Europe's single currency and plunge the world economy into chaos.