Kenya's president and future prime minister said today they had made "substantial progress" at talks to end an impasse over a power-sharing cabinet, and said they expected to clinch a deal the next day.
"We have had a lengthy consultation throughout the day on the formation of a grand coalition government. In this regard we have made substantial progress," President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga said in a joint statement.
"We expect to successfully conclude the consultations tomorrow."
Both leaders met alone after their respective sides disagreed over who would get which ministries.
Confusion reigned this morning as Kibaki's side reversed itself and said the cabinet would be named but the opposition said it would not.
But at the appointed time for the cabinet announcement, the two leaders broke off their four-hour meeting for lunch and pledged to return in an hour to resume what sources on both sides said was haggling over the division of ministries.
The cabinet is the cornerstone of a deal brokered in February to end the east African nation's bloodiest political crisis, a post-election spasm of rioting and ethnic slaughter that killed at least 1,200 people and displaced 300,000 more.
Kibaki in early January named a half-cabinet that is still in place, but the opposition rejected his first offer to take the remaining ministries in a unity government.
Government spokesman Mutua said the talks were "proceeding very well", but the opposition was less sanguine.