LIVERPOOL (Reuters) — British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg urged his Liberal Democrat party this week to stick with a coalition government with the Conservatives for a full five years and his wish is likely to be granted.

Analysts say it would be suicidal for either party to pull out of the coalition in the short term, when poll ratings are collapsing under the pressure of unprecedented spending cuts. However, they warn that the Lib Dems, the junior partner in a Conservative-led coalition, will ultimately be pushed back to the margins of British politics unless they stamp their mark on the alliance more clearly.

The centre-right Conservatives joined forces with the libertarian Lib Dems after an inconclusive election in May, an unlikely partnership that formed Britain's first coalition in 65 years since the Second World War. The coalition has made cutting a record peacetime budget deficit their priority, with spending cuts of 25 percent in many departments to be unveiled next month.

Lib Dem activists are queasy about the apparent zeal with which the party leadership has signed up to such cuts, worrying that the poor will be hit hardest by austerity measures.

However, media anticipating a mutiny at the party's annual conference this week have been disappointed. Most delegates were prepared to give the leadership the benefit of the doubt, pleased to have cast off decades of irrelevance. "Clegg has been up front about the challenges ahead. We need to give it a chance and see how things are going 3 or 4 years down the line," said James-Elsdon Baker, a 27-year-old who joined the party a year ago.

Delegates voiced their opposition to the government's plans for school reform, but dissent has otherwise been muted. "Expectations of a massive punch-up here were overblown," said Andrew Hawkins of pollsters ComRes.

The Lib Dems are polling only around 15 percent, down by a third since the election. Hawkins said he expected the Labour party, which lost power in May after 13 years in May, to overtake the Conservatives as the leading party in polls soon.

He said neither coalition party could afford to scuttle the alliance while austerity measures were denting their ratings. "That pressure will keep the coalition together, to pull it apart would be mutually assured destruction," he added.

That analysis is shared by Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, who is seen as speaking for the left of the party. "We did a five-year deal. The deal is not for unstitching. Bluntly, it would not be in our interest to do so," said Hughes, seen as a spokesman for the left of the party.

The Lib Dems gained support for their outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. They take a strong line on civil liberties and decentralisation and also talk tough on making banks pay for the financial crisis and helping the poor pay less tax.

Worried by market jitter, the two parties put together the coalition agreement in just five days — breakneck speed compared with long, tortuous negotiations in some continental European countries.

Analysts note areas of disagreement over the construction of new nuclear power stations and the renewal of the Trident nuclear missile system, both of which Lib Dems oppose. The coalition faces a divisive referendum next year on reform to the voting system — a long cherished Lib Dem goal, but something the Conservatives will campaign against. The referendum is likely to be held in May to coincide with local elections in England and voting for devolved governments in Scotland and Wales. A poor Lib Dem showing and a referendum defeat would lead to intense soul searching about the merits of the coalition.

John Curtice, a professor of politics at Scotland's Strathclyde University, said electoral reform would be a difficult issue but would not break the coalition. "My best bet is that they survive for five years," he said.

Clegg has ruled out a pact with the Conservatives at the next election, pledging his party will field its own candidates.