Tories and Lib Dems to hold more power-sharing talks

Senior Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are to hold more talks about the possibility of their parties forming a new government.

Conservative and Lib Dem negotiators will meet shortly - after their leaders met on Saturday for private talks.

Shadow Schools Secretary Michael Gove said the Lib Dems would not be "manoeuvred" into accepting any deal they were unhappy with.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said "everyone was being constructive".

The Tories won the most election votes and MPs, but are short of a majority and are seeking support from the Lib Dems to form a government.

There will also be a meeting of Conservative MPs at 1800 BST on Monday, the BBC understands.

Mr Gove, on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, said: "We must be respectful of what the Liberal Democrats want to do. We're not attempting to sand-bag or manoeuvre them into a situation with which they are unhappy."

He said he could not give precise details on the negotiations, but it was important to give the markets confidence on Monday.

"We all know with what is happing in the eurozone and Greece, that we cannot afford to have a situation where we don't have as quickly as possible a new government formed, taking the steps we all know are necessary in order to put our economy back on track."

He said he was prepared to give up his potential position as education secretary for a Liberal Democrat. Currently David Laws is the Lib Dems education spokesman.

"What I'd like to see is a spirit of co-operation. I don't object to the fact that we can have Liberal Democrat voices helping to shape an agenda which we can all agree can help take us forward at a difficult time," Mr Gove said.

'Constructive and amicable'

Gordon Brown remains prime minister, and government business continues, with Chancellor Alistair Darling attending a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels later.

Mr Brown has offered the Lib Dems talks if no deal is reached with the Conservatives.

A Lib Dem spokesman said Mr Clegg and Mr Brown spoke by telephone on Saturday night at the prime minister's request, describing the conversation as "amicable".

Meanwhile, Mr Cameron has told Tory supporters that the negotiations will "inevitably involve compromise".

In an e-mail message to supporters, the Conservative leader said he would not be "rushed into any agreement" but may be able to give "ground" in some areas.

He said he would stand firm on his pledges not "to give more powers to Brussels, be weak on immigration or put the country's defences at risk".

But he added that, in the "national interest", the Conservative Party may be able to give ground in areas such as the Lib Dem manifesto plan to reduce taxes on the lowest paid and hoped for a "similarly constructive approach from the Liberal Democrats".

There was no direct reference to the Lib Dem desire for a referendum on voting reform, although on Friday Mr Cameron offered an "all-party committee of inquiry on political and electoral reform".

The talks between Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg at Admiralty House in Westminster, on Saturday night, were described by both sides as "constructive and amicable" and followed an earlier brief conversation at the VE day commemoration event in London.

Voting referendum offer

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said: "They will have been working out whether there is any room there on which they can meet which would allow them to both satisfy their supporters and have some sort of stable coalition or arrangement."

Our correspondent added that some "very senior Liberal Democrats" were urging their party leader to "talk to Gordon Brown".

Earlier, Mr Clegg discussed the Tory power-sharing offer with his party, the leadership of which has "endorsed in full" his decision to talk to the Tories first.

The Lib Dem leader said the Conservatives, as the biggest party, had the right to seek to form a government first.

Meanwhile, Labour frontbencher Peter Hain said it was "clear" that the Lib Dem leader and Mr Brown had "a lot in common" on the need for electoral reform - Labour has offered a referendum on changing the voting system.

But Labour backbencher John Mann called for Mr Brown to step down as Labour leader before the party conference in September - arguing his position "rules out the credibility of a Lib/Lab pact".

Similarly, Labour MP and former sports minister Kate Hoey told BBC Radio 5 live she could not see how Mr Brown could "continue as prime minister in any kind of coalition" because "he wasn't elected originally" and had now "lost over 100 MPs".

Scotland's First Minister, SNP leader Alex Salmond, called on the Lib Dems to join a "progressive alliance" involving Labour, the SNP and Plaid Cymru.