Parties holding informal talks on coalition

Political parties remained tight-lipped today as informal discussions continued on the formation of a coalition government.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is back in Dublin today to meet with party officials and for a meeting with Labour leader Pat Rabbitte later in the week.

Enda Kenny: Meeting party officials today

Fine Gael is still holding out hope of forming a broad alliance with Labour and other smaller parties as well as Independents although a Fianna Fáil-led administration is seen as more likely.

Fianna Fáil were left with 78 seats after the election, putting them in the driving seat for forming the government of the 30th Dáil.

A Fine Gael spokesman told ireland.com: "Contacts are being established with political parties and certain Independents have been contacted."

Mr Kenny said last night he wanted to "follow through on my intention to seek discussions with the other party leaders, Mary Harney and Trevor Sargent, and each of the Independent members over the next number of days, in the next 10 days or so, because I believe that I really have a mandate for change here."

A Labour spokesman said "informal contacts" had been made with Fine Gael and added: "There has been no approach from Fianna Fáil and we're not expecting any".

Fianna Fáil has so far not made significant progress on beginning coalition discussions but Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said his preferred option is a deal the the two remaining Progressive Democrats TDs and "gene pool" Independents.

The Green Party confirmed that informal approaches had been made to them from both Fine Gael and Labour but that they had not been contacted yet by Fianna Fáil.

A spokesman for the Progressive Democrats said Mary Harney, who has assumed leadership responsibilities for the party, has made it clear that she would like to be part of a "stable and coherent" government.

He said the party's 21-member national excutive would be meeting tomorrow. "In the aftermath of the election, there are quite a few logistical and practical matters to be discussed," he said. The PDs lost six of their eight seats including Tánaiste and party leader Michael McDowell, deputy leader Liz O'Donnell and party president Tom Parlon.

Sinn Féin, who have four seats in the Dáil, have been left out of the cold by all the main political parties.