THE leaders of Bolton's three main political parties will be locked away in secret discussions this weekend after the election left no single political group with overall control of the council.

Labour has indicated that as the largest party in the council it intends to carry on as normal and form a new executive.

But, as the party retired to lick its wounds, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats revealed they will debate ways of making the weakened Labour group compromise on key issues.

For the first time in 58 years no party has complete control and all three parties now have to decide how they will react to the new political landscape.

For the time being at least, all three leaders ruled out any kind of formal political pacts and said there would have to be greater discussion between the parties.

Labour leader Cllr Bob Howarth said it was too early to say what went wrong for Labour. He said: "It is depressing. I had hoped that we would carry on with the same majority but we are by far still the largest party on the council."

Cllr Howarth said he did not know whether the Iraq war had any effect on the Labour vote but said losses could be attributed to a traditional mid-term reaction to the government.

He added that the party would have to go away and analyse what went right -- and what went wrong in each ward.

Tory leader Alan Rushton said it had been a good night for the Conservatives as they had gained two seats from Labour and one from the Liberal Democrats.

He said: "We are absolutely delighted with the results and it has proved our strategy that targeting seats pays dividends."

Cllr Rushton said they had deployed party workers to leaflet and work hard in the three seats they won and almost pulled off another victory in the Breightmet ward.

He added that in the coming months said there would be plenty of discussion between the parties but predicted trouble on car parking charges.

Cllr Barbara Ronson, the leader of the Liberal Democrats pledged that her party would not exploit the situation to make Bolton ungovernable.

She added: "We see ourselves as an effective opposition to the Labour Party but the town has to be able to continue to run."

Cllr Ronson said she was sorry to lose the Hulton Park ward but it was good to gain Central and Blackrod as they were such diverse areas.

She emphasised that all the parties had agreed on many subjects in the past and that everyone would have to continue talking to each other on a range of issues.