国际英语新闻：Brown to resign as British Labour leader, paving way for Lib-Lab government

Monday morning saw a resumption of talks between high-ranking negotiators from both sides, who had met on Saturday and Sunday.

When those talks broke up, negotiators from both sides said they were pleased with progress.

However, the proposals were put to the 57 Liberal Democrat members of parliament (MPs) in the early afternoon of Monday, and it was there that they came unstuck and the expected announcement that an agreement had been reached in principle would not be made.

One of the negotiators, David Laws, told the press after the meeting that his party would "continue to listen to Labor" and that it wanted "to get clarification on a few important points" from the Conservatives.

He added: "What we are seeking to do is to make sure that we get a government which is not only going to be stable in the national interest so that it can deliver and meet the very difficult challenges that there presently are both in relation to political reform and also in relation to the economic situation.

"Although we are very, very conscious of the need to reach decisions quickly -- and that was a clear decision of the parliamentary party today -- we also want to make sure that we get these matters right and this discussion is dependent not only on the Liberal Democrat party, but also on the proposals and discussions that are ongoing with the Conservative party, and the representations that are, frankly, being made by Labor."