The government offered the Opposition the possibility of nominating one of its own MPs as Speaker during a meeting on Monday between Dr Gonzi and Alfred Sant, who is still leader of the opposition.

The offer was part of a set of proposals made by Dr Gonzi after prior approval by the Nationalist Party.

The government in a statement today said the proposals were:

That the Speaker be appointed from the Opposition benches as long as both sides reach a pairing agreement. The Deputy Speaker and the chairman of committees would be chosen from the government benches;

Prime Minister's questions would be held once every two weeks;

In view of meetings of the Council of the European Union, Parliamentary sittings would be held on Tuesday mornings and afternoons and on Wednesday mornings with all voting taking place at the end of the Wednesday sitting. Parliament could hold other sittings as necessary;

With regard to the quorum required for sittings, the government suggested that sittings would be suspended only if not enough MPs are present in the House 30 minutes after a call for quorum is made, and such call can only be made only during Question Time;

Funding would be provided for 10 research officers, employed by Parliament, five for each parliamentary group;

The government said that Dr Gonzi and Dr Sant at their meeting on Monday also discussed the appointment of the Auditor-General and the Deputy Auditor General.

The government said that in view of the Opposition's statement late yesterday on parliamentary business, it appeared that the Opposition had unilaterally decided that the talks between Dr Gonzi and Dr Sant would not remain confidential and the government proposals were therefore being made public.

In terms of House rules, whenever the Speaker is a serving MP, he loses his original vote, but has a casting vote. Whenever a pairing arrangement is reached, Opposition MPs are 'paired' to government MPs so that if a government MP has to be away and cannot vote in the House because of official business, the opposition MP will also not vote. That preserves the government majority.

(See also: 'Opposition offers case-by-case pairing arrangement' in the news section)