Talks between the SDLP and Sinn Fein tonight broke up at Stormont without any prospect of an electoral pact between them at the next general election.
After a 45-minute meeting, both sides agreed to brief their party leaderships on what was discussed but continued to question each others attitudes towards a deal.
Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said his party had outlined an electoral strategy over the next ten years, which could result in Nationalists winning 11 out of the 18 seats for Northern Ireland at Westminster.
"It wasn't a particularly productive meeting I think my colleagues would agree," the Foyle MLA said.
"We did outline a 10-year scenario in which clearly there would be three Westminster elections. We described a situation where, with a co-ordinated approach, up to 11 out of the 18 seats would eventually be represented by Nationalist or Republican representatives and we felt we were responding to a view which is very deeply held within the Nationalist community that very often they are misrepresented as a result of splits within the Nationalist vote."
SDLP chairman, Mr Alex Attwood, claimed afterwards that Sinn Fein had given "no credible answers" to why they had conducted a public debate on the idea of a pact between the Nationalist parties, why they had released private correspondence to journalists and why it had coincided with the decision of the SDLP to field the Minister of Agriculture Mrs Brid Rodgers as its candidate in West Tyrone at the next general election.
The West Belfast MLA said Mr McLaughlin and his colleagues had also failed to outline in any detail what they had in mind.
"We didn't tell Sinn Féin to get lost, we told Sinn Fein to get real, because the meeting was not real," Mr Attwood said.
"It came up with no detail about what it was they were proposing. It had no explanation as to why this issue arose after Bríd Rodgers was nominated.
"There was no explanation as to why letters were being given to the press and this debate is being conducted in public. "I think people throughout the North (of Ireland) will be drawing their own conclusions as to what motivates certain people in raising this issue at this time, when they are beginning to feel the political wind and will feel it in the forthcoming public elections."
Analysts suggest four Ulster Unionist seats are vulnerable at the next general election West Tyrone, Fermanagh and South Tyrone, North Belfast and South Belfast.
PA