He disclosed this to newspersons at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters after a two-hour-long talk with senior DMK leaders led by state health minister Arcot N Veerasamy on Sunday evening.

Declining to give any further details, he said the DMK and BJP would be holding talks with other allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday and the day after. ``We will meet again on July 28 and 29 after which the seat-sharing will be decided,'' he added.

Replying to a question, Veerasamy said the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere. The BJP was represented by Kumaramangalam, state party president K N Lakshmanan and state general secretary L Ganesan, while the DMK was represented by Veerasamy, public works minister DuraiMurugan and transport minister K Ponmudi. Chief minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi is away at Tiruvarur. Kumaramangalam smiled away a question whether the BJP was being allotted seven Lok Sabha seats, two more than the number of seats contested by it as part of the AIADMK-led Front in last year's elections.

``The seat-sharing talks are being held under the initiative taken by Karunanidhi and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We can't reveal the details till we hold further talks with our allies, namely, the Marumalarchi DMK, PMK and the TRC,'' he added.

It may be recalled that the DMK had contested 18 seats during last year's Lok Sabha elections and won six, while the BJP had bagged three seats.