Iceland's radical Pirate party, which has vowed to stamp out corruption and use online polls to form its policies, has been asked to form the country's next government, the Telegraph has learned.

The Nordic country's political system has been gridlocked since October's election as no single party managed to win a clear majority - though the Pirates saw their number of seats increase threefold.

"The president gave us the mandate today to lead the government formation," Halldora Mogensen, a newly elected Pirate Party MP, told the Telegraph.

"We have the mandate to start official talks about forming the government. We don't want to necessarily lead anything but rather work towards a collaboration on equal grounds."