PAS will only agree to hold talks with Umno if the latter drops all suggestions of PAS joining Barisan Nasional, PAS secretary-general Nasharudin Mat Isa said today.

Nasharudin also said that Umno must confirm that it is willing to discuss national unity - not just Malay unity - which remains the main priority of PAS.

"If they still insist on their (Umno's) terms, then we have to rethink the holding of the talks," Nasharudin told malaysiakini .

He, however, said that the technical committees of the two parties will meet soon to discuss these matters.

"If we can agree on these two matters, that PAS is not joining BN and the talks must include national unity matters, then the PAS president Fadzil Noor will meet Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad," he said.

Umno proposed early last month for full-scale discussions between leaders of Umno, PAS and Keadilan on issues pertaining to Malay unity, adding that such talks would be done with no pre-conditions imposed on PAS and Keadilan.

The proposal was mooted by Umno's management and disciplinary committee and the suggestion was brought to the party's supreme council which approved it. However, Keadilan rejected the invitation on the grounds that it was a multiracial party.

Keadilan, in a letter to Umno, also noted that there was no disunity amongst the Malays but only a shift in Malay support to the opposition.

It also said that any proposed talks should include national matters, such as corruption, abuse of power, mismanagement of the economy, police brutality and Executive interference in the judiciary.

Joining BN a non-issue

PAS, too, has said from the beginning that it was only agreeable to join the talks on the condition that it include matters pertaining to national unity.

Following this, the secretaries-general of Umno and PAS have been tasked to undertake the preliminary preparations for the talks.

Nasharudin said that he was mandated by the PAS central committee to meet with Umno's technical committee to discuss the agenda of the talks.

Nasharudin said that the recent statement by Mahathir that PAS was welcome to join BN had not helped in getting the talks on-going.

"The statement by Mahathir and other Umno leaders have confused many PAS supporters who think that the unity talk is an attempt to bring PAS into BN.

"Joining BN is a non-issue and we have no intention of doing that, not even discussing the possibility," he stressed.

He added that discussions on national unity remained the top priority of PAS and as such he would ask Umno to include matters of national interest in the talks.

Proposed agenda

Yesterday, Umno deputy president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Umno had "no problems" in raising national unity matters during the proposed talks.

"Umno will discusss Malay unity and if PAS wants to raise matters on national unity, we have no problems with that," he said.

While welcoming this, Nasharudin said that the Umno technical committee should include this matter in their proposed agenda.

"Once both committees agree on the terms for the talks and the issues to be included, I will then put the proposals to the PAS central committee which has the final say," he added.