Let the talks begin!

With only one seat separating National and Labour, there will be plenty of negotiating going on over the next few weeks.

Labour leader Helen Clark begins meeting party leaders today.

She believes having to seek support from a range of parties over the past three years has put her in good stead to face the coalition chaos.

Minor party positioning is already well underway and Labour staff have spoken with every party except National and ACT.

Miss Clark faces the prospect of United Future and New Zealand First having trouble working with the Greens.

But she believes there is a way of making a stable coalition.

Helen Clark says she feels like she has been in training for a situation like this and it is important to respect what the verdict of voters is, and she gives her commitment to making it work.

Meanwhile, National is conceding it may have to compromise some policy areas to form a Government.

Leader Don Brash says with more than 200,000 special votes still to be counted, it would be premature for him to begin any sort of negotiation.

He remains hopeful special votes will tip the balance in National's favour and is refusing to enter formal talks with any parties until October 1st when the outcome will be known.

Dr Brash says he has formulated an ideal arrangement on paper, if it goes National's way.

Don Brash says he would like to see the Greens drop out of Parliament and he would like to see the National party be ahead of Labour in the overall party vote stakes, which would see him do a deal with United Future and ACT with a supply and confidence agreement with New Zealand First.

Dr Brash says no party gets exactly what it wants under MMP, and National is realistic about that. The Maori Party has said it has problems with National's plan to scrap the Maori seats and its divisive policies, but Dr Brash says he still wants to talk about how the two parties could work together.

Newstalk ZB