VILNIUS: Lithuanians voted Sunday in a presidential election, with EU budget chief Dalia Grybauskaite poised to return to politics in her recession-hit Baltic homeland as its first female head of state. Grybauskaite, who has a martial arts black belt and says her heroes include Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, has pledged to pull the nation of 3.34 million 'out of the political and economic shadows.'

'I'm determined to win, but let the voters decide,' she said as she cast her ballot.

A member of the EU's Brussels-based executive European Commission since 2004, when ex-Soviet Lithuania joined the bloc, she regularly chastised Vilnius for squandering the country's now-defunct economic boom and failing to prepare for downturn.

'My conscience as a citizen wouldn't let me stay in Brussels,' Grybauskaite, 53, told AFP ahead of the election.

'I did what I could from Brussels, criticising and commenting, but it wasn't effective enough,' she said.

'One of the first tasks will be to solve this crisis, to try to stabilise Lithuania's financial position so that the country can climb back up the curve as fast as possible,' she added.

Grybauskaite entered the race in February, after public anger over Lithuania's deepening economic crisis and ingrained distrust in politicians erupted into a riot outside parliament.

She has a massive opinion poll lead among the seven candidates vying to succeed veteran Valdas Adamkus, 82, who has served out two five-year terms.

Surveys suggest she could win over 50 percent of Sunday's vote, thus avoiding a run-off on June 7.

A pre-election poll gave her 52.9 percent. Next, with just 8.1 percent, was Algirdas Butkevicius, 50, a minister in the Social Democrat-led government that regularly crossed swords with Grybauskaite over the economy before it lost office in last October's general election.

Grybauskaite is not a member of a party and is standing as an independent. She is nonetheless backed by the ruling Conservatives, although she warned their government is also under watch.

Under Lithuanian law, the new president takes the reins in July. The government then has to step down, and the head of state names a premier.

Grybauskaite said she was likely to stick with Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius but that she would not rule out a cabinet reshuffle.

The president's main role is to steer foreign policy, but Grybauskaite said the crisis called for a more active role on the home front.

Lithuania kicked off the collapse of the Soviet Union by declaring independence from Moscow's five-decade rule in 1990.

Switching to the free market, it later enjoyed years of solid growth, but is now reeling from recession. The government is slashing public spending, unemployment is climbing and the economy is forecast to shrink by 15.6 percent this year.

Polling stations opened Sunday 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and were to close at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT).

'I want the next president to make things better. They're bad all round, in the economy, corruption, but also for young people who're all moving abroad,' said Grybauskaite voter Jurate Bekulciene, an airport security worker in her forties.

'Maybe a woman can get us out of this mess,' she added.

But Migle, an economics students who did not give her last name, said she picked Butkevicius because he was 'real,' while Grybauskaite appeared 'arrogant.'

Grybauskaite studied and taught political economy during the Soviet era. She began her career as a public servant after independence and was Lithuania's deputy finance minister from 1999 to 2000, deputy foreign minister in 2000, and finance minister from 2001 to 2004..