BURNLEY council remained without a leader or ruling executive today after talks failed to resolve the deadlock over who should take the reins of the authority.

And the stalemate looked set to continue until the end of the week while the parties thrashed out an agreement.

Council bosses said today the appointment of leader and executive were expected to be confirmed at a meeting on May 18.

The most likely outcome is still a coalition between the Liberal Democrats, the joint largest party in the council chamber with 16 seats, and the Conservatives, who have five.

But the delay is thought to be down to wrangling over how many seats each party would get on the executive, the decision-making body of the authority.

The deadlock has been caused by the local election results of last week which left previous ruling party Labour weakened after losing five of their 21 seats and the Liberal Democrats hugely strengthened by gaining five seats.

Labour lost their party leader and leader of the council Stuart Caddy in the poll, as well as long serving member Peter Kenyon.

A Burnley council spokesman said: "Following last Thursday's local elections the council will be meeting on the May 18 to appoint a new leader, executive, individual committees and the chairs and vice chairs of those committees.

"In the meantime there are ongoing discussions currently being held between the leaders of each political group represented on the council and the council's management team. This is with a view to arriving at proposals to be considered by the meeting on May 18."

Two years ago Burnley council was left in limbo for five weeks with no leader or executive when Labour and the Liberal Democrats failed to agree on power sharing.