Minister agrees to referendum row talks

LONDON — Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has agreed to an invitation by the British government to hold talks this week in a bid to resolve a row over an indepdence referendum, his spokesman said yesterday.

Michael Moore, the British minister for Scotland in the United Kingdom's London-based government, asked to meet Salmond to discuss the clash over the vote which could break up a 305-year-old union.

But Salmond's spokesman said the talks would have to wait until after Wednesday when the semi-autonomous Edinburgh government is set to publish a consultation document on the referendum.

The spokesman also accused British Prime Minister David Cameron of being "uncomfortable" and of trying to avoid having talks with Salmond. "The first minister will be very happy to meet with the Secretary of State (Moore), as he always does," Salmond's spokesman said in a statement.

"It would be sensible for Mr Salmond to meet with Mr Moore after we have published our document next Wednesday, so that he can see what our proposals are, and we are sure that can be arranged."

But he added: "It is clearly necessary that the first minister also meets with the prime minister, who is deciding Downing Street's policy."

"The prime minister appears uncomfortable and disinclined even to discuss the issue with the first minister — having provoked the row in the first place," he said.

A constitutional clash erupted on Tuesday after Cameron's government announced that only the parliament in London had the legal power to set the terms for a referendum, and said the vote should be held as soon as possible.

Salmond hit back hours after the announcement, saying that the devolved Scottish government would hold an independence referendum in autumn 2014, and on its own terms.

There is also disagreement about whether there should be a single question — London's favoured option — asking Scottish voters if they want to be "in or out", and about Salmond's wish to lower the voting age from 18 to 16.

Salmond's spokesman said there should be discussion of a third voting option branded "devo max", which would stop short of full independence and see Scotland retain ties to the UK such as shared military endeavour.

Salmond has been pushing for a referendum since elections last year, when his Scottish National Party won the first majority in the Edinburgh parliament since its formation in 1999, following devolution from the UK in 1998.

An opinion poll published in the Mail on Sunday showed that only 26 per cent of Scots backed independence from Britain. Some 29 per cent of English and Welsh people polled supported Scottish independence.

A poll in the Sunday Telegraph found that 40 per cent of Scots supported independence, against 43 per cent among the English who wanted Scotland out of the union. — AFP