UPDATE 1-Denmark's prime minister calls election for June 5

Denmark will hold a parliamentary election on June 5, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Tuesday, opening a campaign that is likely to focus on cracks in the Nordic country's cherished welfare model.

Polls indicate that a coalition led by Rasmussen's centre-right Liberal Party will lose power to a centre-left bloc led by Mette Frederiksen's Social Democratic Party. Support for the centre-left bloc stands at 54.8 percent, according to an average of polls published by Berlingske Barometer.

The two blocs have mainly been at odds over welfare spending, as changing demographics put pressure on a cradle-to-grave welfare system that includes universal healthcare, education and services for the elderly. "Even though there are differences between parties, we agree on a lot. We agree to prioritise welfare," Rasmussen said in parliament.

"But we must not forget that good welfare takes a healthy economy." Social Democratic leader Fredriksen wrote on Facebook that she was currently in hospital with a stomach upset. (Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Grønholt-Pedersen; additional reporting by Andreas Mortensen; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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