The government planned to announce its stand on the public transport reform at a national conference on December 5, the Transport Ministry said yesterday.

The ministry was reacting to a statement by the Public Transport Association (ATP), which called for talks on the sector's reform in line with a pre-election promise.

ATP president Victor Spiteri said that before the March elections the association and the government had agreed on a 10-year public transport contract. The ministry was quick to point out that this was not an agreement but a letter containing the government's intentions at the time.

Mr Spiteri said that if the agreement was terminated and could not be renewed, bus owners had to be suitably compensated. Such a contract had to be reached before 2010 according to an EU directive.

The ministry said that in the letter mentioned above the government had expressed its intention to enter into an agreement as long as this was within the parameters of EU legislation.

It explained that, at the time, the government was having talks with the EU over dividing the public transport service into a number of contracts so that direct tenders could be awarded in terms of EU law.

However, the European Commission did not accept the proposal. The government's remaining options were to either nationalise the service, something it did not wish to do, or to launch a competitive selection process.

The ministry said that if the owners running the service had to stop doing so once the competitive process ended, discussions would be held and they would be suitably compensated.

Mr Spiteri said the association had long been calling for a public transport reform because it believed this could result in a fair income for the service being offered and also an improvement in the drivers' working conditions, which were among the worst in the EU. The ministry welcomed the association's call for reform but said the letter being referred to was not for the provision of a service without competition.