Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) vice-president Mohd Azmin Ali today said the party's seat negotiations with Barisan Alternatif (BA) ally PAS are almost completed.

"We have settled more than 90 percent of the seat distribution, and expect that the rest will be settled soon," he told a press conference today.

Mohd Azmin, who heads Keadilan's election bureau, declined to disclose which constituencies remain outstanding in the distribution process, but said these are Malay-majority seats in "all states".

He also refused to say how many seats have been allocated to Keadilan in relation to the constituencies over which the BA partners have already reached agreement.

"I don't have the breakdown," he said, but said the talks were being conducted "in a smooth manner".

Mohd Azmin said the current negotiations were different compared to that in 1999 because of the recent revisions to election boundaries, and that BA has decided to contest in 40 of the 56 state seats in Selangor.

During the negotiations, PAS agreed to let Keadilan field candidates in more than half of the constituencies selected, he said.

Positive indication

Asked about the progress of similar talks with former BA partner DAP, Mohd Azmin said both parties will make an announcement tomorrow.

"Party leaders have held several informal discussions and we have communicated with DAP. We expect to issue a joint statement tomorrow after the issue is discussed during Keadilan's political bureau meeting," he said.

DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock was quoted on Saturday as denying several statements in the Chinese media recently that 'informal' talks had been held at the state level between the two parties.

He said he had been misquoted, while other DAP leaders said they were waiting for decisions from the top to revive the talks.

Responding to this, Mohd Azmin said there are positive indications that the talks could resume.

"Our communications so far indicate that we should work together. We (DAP and Keadilan) share many common agendas," he added.

The DAP-Keadilan talks have been shelved for more than five months after DAP suspended the talks on Aug 5 last year, following its claims that Keadilan leaders were "persistently leaking" the negotiation details to the media.