Alex Salmond today hailed a "historic" victory after the Nationalists humiliated Labour in the battle for Scottish votes in the European elections.

Across Scotland the SNP secured 29% of the vote to Labour's 21%, comfortably achieving the target the SNP leader had set his party at the start of the campaign.

Results were announced in Edinburgh last night from 31 council areas, and only the Western Isles have yet to declare.

When the Western Isles result is announced this morning, the final piece of the European election voting jigsaw in Scotland will be put in place.

This is expected to see Labour and the SNP keep their two seats, and the Tories and Liberal Democrats one each.

While the result was a humiliation for Labour, it was not quite a meltdown.

Although Gordon Brown's party ended up limping in second place behind the SNP, the Labour vote still held above 20% - just.

Unofficial calculations last night gave the SNP 29% of the Scottish vote, Labour 20.8%, the Tories 16.9%, the Liberal Democrats 11.5% and the Greens 7.5%

First Minister and SNP leader Mr Salmond said: "This is a historic result for the SNP, up 10 points on the last European election and the first time we have ever won a UK-wide election in Scotland."

He went on: "This is Labour's worst share of the vote since before World War One and the emergence of the modern Labour party."

In the last European election in 2004 the SNP, Labour and the Tories had two seats each and the Liberal Democrats one.

But the number of Scottish Euro seats has been reduced to six through European enlargement.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray admitted the results were "disappointing" for Labour but said lessons had been learned from the campaign,

"The public have been deeply disillusioned by the expenses scandal and Labour, as the government, has taken the main hit," said Mr Gray.

"But as Gordon Brown said, Labour's priorities are to clean up politics and work towards economic recovery."

And he said: "Despite the SNP's claims about taking a third seat, once again it has been exposed as their usual hype."

East Lothian, the area represented at Holyrood by Mr Gray, was one of several areas where Labour was outpolled by the SNP.

Another was Edinburgh South West - from the area Chancellor Alistair Darling represents in Westminster.

With results in last night from 31 of 32 council areas, Labour led the field in only three areas - Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, and Fife.

Even in Fife the SNP were breathing down Labour's neck - Labour came first there by a tiny 205-vote margin - by 21,248 votes to 21,043.

Elsewhere, the SNP came first in 21 areas, the Tories in four - Dumfries and Galloway, Borders, South Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire - and the Lib Dems in three areas - Highland, Orkney and Shetland.

One of Labour's many setbacks was coming third in East Renfrewshire, the area represented at Westminster by the Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy.

Here, however, it was the Tories who triumphed with 28.6% of the vote to the SNP's 22.8% and Labour's 20.8%.

Mr Salmond said the SNP margin of victory in the European elections was much greater than in the 2007 Holyrood elections.

"In the contest between two governments, the SNP in Scotland and Labour at Westminster, the people of Scotland have delivered a massive vote of confidence in the SNP and a massive rejection of Labour," said Mr Salmond.

Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael said: "The people of Scotland are walking away from Labour in their droves.

"We would go back more than half a century to find a result as bad as this for the Labour party in Scotland.

"You have to think that for a Labour government headed by a Scottish Prime Minister and a Scottish chancellor, this looks like time is up."

But there was at least one crumb of comfort for Labour.

In Glasgow, it led the poll in the area covered by Glasgow North East, where a Westminster by-election is expected after the resignation of Speaker Michael Martin.

On a turnout of just 21.5% in the area, Labour polled 5,244 votes to the SNP's 3,177.

Across Scotland, the turnout in the European poll, excluding the Western Isles, was just over 31%.