TALKS to stabilise Burnley Council must continue despite Labour returning to power, the town's MP has warned.

Peter Pike said agreement needed to be reached to find a way forward for the authority, which has no party with an overall majority, as there are no scheduled elections next year.

The absence of a poll means the make-up of the chamber, with 21 Labour and 24 opposition party members, is likely to remain unchanged until May 2006.

Last week, Labour returned to power as a minority administration following five weeks of chaos, after they and the Liberal Democrats failed to agree on power sharing.

Mr Pike said: "The priority for the council must now be to make the present executive position work until the annual council meeting in May next year.

"There are no planned elections for the council in 2005, so there needs to be discussion and agreement on the way forward from May 2005 until May 2006 and that needs to be agreed before the annual meeting."

The Liberal Democrats sparked the meltdown, which led to the threat of legal action against the council or Government intervention, after they passed a series of motions slashing the numbers on the executive ruling body.

Leader Coun Stuart Caddy and the remaining members of the executive resigned in protest and both main parties agreed a coalition would have been the best way forward.

However, they failed to agree on the make-up of a cross-party executive and the Liberal Democrats refused to work with Labour with Coun Caddy as leader.

Labour have promised to listen to the other parties before making decisions, but the Liberal Democrats have refused to rule out bringing down the administration if it is seen to be failing the town.