BJP Parliamentary Party Leader L K Advani reiterated his call for a ?new beginning? in Opposition-Government ties after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that ?he was looking forward to a close relationship with the Leader of Opposition?.

?I was compelled to reply and I did say a few things that Advaniji said had hurt him. Then he rang me up on May 16 and he expressed regret. In exchange, I apologised to him if I had said anything to hurt his feelings,? said the Prime Minister, in response to a question on board PM?s special aircraft, while returning from Yekaterinburg after a three-day visit.

Advani, busy settling in-house problems in the BJP before the party meets for a two-day national executive on June 20, confirmed to The Indian Express that the two interactions between the two leaders after the declaration of the election results were ?cordial?.

While the BJP ? and Advani ? had repeatedly called Manmohan a ?weak leader? through the election campaign, the PM hit back at Advani on March 24, questioning his track-record saying ?it included playing a prominent role in Babri demolition and 2002 Gujarat riots and the Red Fort attack?.

Putting behind an acrimonious campaign, both leaders, however, stressed a new beginning on Wednesday.

Advani told The Indian Express that the blueprint of his idea of Opposition-Government ties had been spelt out in his reply to the Motion of Thanks on the address by the President in Lok Sabha on June 5.

?There cannot be any monopoly or copyright on the three principles (of good governance, development and security)? I wish to assure the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House that my party and the NDA will extend full and constructive support to the government whenever we find that you are protecting the interests of the nation?

The din and drama of elections is over. Let us put behind us the acrimony of the election campaign,? Advani had said.

Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, spoke in a similar vein in the Upper House on June 5. ?The emphasis on high growth and low inflation, the priority to the right to food, the zero tolerance to terror, the examination of one-rank one-pension in the armed forces, the commitment to approve the Women?s Reservation Bill… We shall support the government on each of these measures,? he said.