TALKS to agree who will run Blackburn with Darwen Council have stalled because of wrangling over who will sit on the leading committee.

Liberal Democrats have agreed in principle to forming a coalition with their Conservative counterparts and the six former Labour councillors who left to form an independent group.

But it is thought some councillors are unhappy with outline proposals for who will sit on the council's new executive board.

Blackburn with Darwen's 17 Tory councillors meet again tonight in an attempt to agree on a new administration to run the council until the next elections in two years.

Lib Dem leader Paul Browne, who has a group of 12 councillors, said some within the Tory ranks were concerned that one of the six defecting councillors, Mahfooz Hussain, could be re-elected to the executive committee after Labour deemed him unfit. Labour, who have 27 seats on the council, look like losing their grip on power to a Lib Dem, Conservative and independent coalition that would have 35 councillors.

Labour's decision not to nominate Coun Hussain back on to the board after a turbulent two years as education spokesman - during which two of the borough's high schools were taken into special measures - was said to have sparked the defections.

A statement from the six said they walked away from Labour days after the election because some blamed them for former Labour leader Sir Bill Taylor's defeat. He lost his seat in a ward with high numbers of Asian voters.

That charge has been strongly denied by senior Labour figures.

Asked if the debate about who will sit on the executive board was the reason for the delay Coun Browne said: "Yes definitely. We had a meeting with our councillors and supporters and we agreed to go ahead with the coalition."

Labour leader Councillor Kate Hollern, who called on the six to stand down and fight by-elections as independents, said: "The public will be appalled that someone deemed unfit based on his past performance could then be used by opposition parties just so they can take power."

Meanwhile the six defectors; Mahfooz Hussain, who represents Bastwell, Yusuf Jan-Virmani (Audley), Faryad Hussain (Queen's Park), Salim Mulla (Queen's Park), Parwaiz Akhtar (Bastwell) and Iftakhar Hussain (Bastwell) met with hundreds of the town's Asian population to explain their actions yesterday.

Coun Jan-Virmani said after the meeting: "We got the full backing of the community to the actions we have taken."