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The meeting between Evangelos Venizelos and Fotis Kouvelis did not bring any news but it has become clear that future talks between the three coalition partners will yield a positive result

The mystery about whether Greece will finally get a government is still hanging in the air even after the meeting between the leaders of PASOK and the Democratic Left, which lasted just over an hour. It was the first ofa series of meetings today.

After the talks, Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis said the two had had a very thorough discussion, but added nothing to what he had said after his meeting with Antonis Samaras last night.

Fotis Kouvelis reiterated that the need for forming a government is pressing, but also stressed the need for the three parties that would participate in it to reach a programme agreement.

His words made it clear that the Democratic Left is still opposing some of the candidates for ministerial seats. According to unofficial sources, the party has also questioned whether Antonis Samaras should be the prime minister.

At the end however, Fotis Kouvelis said that the cabinet forming process is speeding up and that it is quite possible to reach an agreement on the participants in the cabinet as well as on the programme positions in the next few hours.

For his part, Evangelos Venizelos supported the establishment of a "national negotiating group" involving political parties that will not participate in the future cabinet in order to address the "amendment of the negative conditions of the loan agreement."

At the same time, he expressed his optimism about the talks for forming a cabinet. "We have found the presence of many common positions with Fotis Kouvelis and it is now urgent to speed up the process. We must send abroad the message that Greece is a stable collocutor, which can be relied on and a message of security and prospects in the interior," said the leader of PASOK.