The President, at a news conference Tuesday, noted that he had written Mr. Hoyte sometime ago pointing out that they should have dialogue since the outstanding issues are important to the country, especially those dealing with Parliamentary matters.

He noted that in his letter to Hoyte, he said, "it is time that the two of us meet to resolve this".

Hoyte subsequently wrote the President saying that "he is sure that we didn't want to waste our time so we should get the two persons (PNC/R representative, Mr. Lance Carberry to meet Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Reepu Daman Persaud) to document where we were, before we meet which I thought was perfectly reasonable," Mr. Jagdeo told reporters.

The President said he wrote Hoyte Tuesday following the refusal of the PNC/R representative, Carberry to meet Persaud. According to President Jagdeo, Carberry claimed that he had no mandate to meet Persaud because he (President Jagdeo) had not formally indicated his acceptance of the Opposition Leader's proposals.

The Head of State noted that his letter sent Tuesday was to "formally accept" Mr. Hoyte's proposals.

Following the 'pause' in the dialogue process initiated by the PNC in March this year over perceived differences with the Government, Mr. Jagdeo noted that he had written Hoyte requesting that the `pause' decision be reconsidered.

He said that in a subsequent reply, the Opposition Leader indicated that as a prerequisite for the resumption of the talks, the parties' negotiators, Persaud and Carberry, should meet and prepare a summary of the decisions in the dialogue process prior to the meeting between the President and the Opposition Leader.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon told his regular post-Cabinet news conference yesterday that the continuation of the dialogue process is anticipated.

"That adoption would see the negotiators preparing and submitting the detailed summary of the status of the anticipated meeting between President Jagdeo and Mr. Hoyte," he said.