Transport could be key to SNP deal

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The parties are to have further talks on Tuesday about forming the new Executive, after last week's election. An initial meeting was held at St Andrews House on Monday.

But the environmentalists' co-leader, Robin Harper, has made it clear that the party will be looking for movement from Alex Salmond's party on transport issues.

"It is polite when one's in the middle of negotiations to display a certain degree of reticence about the details of what we're going to be discussing," Mr Harper told BBC Radio Scotland.

"But let's say that we shall be looking at a very wide range of transport issues with the SNP with a view to making some progress on getting a greener general attitude to what is happening."

Last week's election saw the Nationalists emerge as the biggest party with 47 MSPs to Labour's 46. The Lib Dems have 16 and the Tories 17, while the Greens have two.

The Greens are opposed to major road-building projects like the M74 extension and the proposed Aberdeen bypass.

Mr Harper also said during the campaign that he believed that congestion charging was inevitable in Scotland's major cities. The Nationalists, though, have pledged to scrap tolls on the Forth and Tay road bridges.

But Mr Harper added: "As Alex Salmond said, clearly we cannot expect them to abandon manifesto commitments. What we are looking for is some degree of progress in an overall SNP attitude to climate change and in loopholes where we can look for overall progress on a greener transport system in Scotland.

"They've got to move towards us on that - we've got to be able to leave these talks with some progress so that we can go back to the people who voted for us and say we have actually improved things."