State of the parties: Labour needs time, says Ed Balls

Speaking shortly before formal talks between the Labour and Liberal Democrat negotiating teams began, he highlighted the importance of getting things "right".

Mr Balls told reporters on his doorstep: "We need to take the time to get it right and I am very clear my job is to be there with the whole negotiating team to make sure we protect our manifesto, but also the country needs a stable government."

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Miliband also spoke to reporters outside his home of the importance of allowing the talks to continue.

Mr Balls added: "There are some areas of agreement but also some difficult issues."

Asked how long the process could take, he said: "Everybody wants to do this as soon as we possibly can."

In a brief conversation with the press, Mr Miliband said: "It's very important that we allow those talks to progress.

"I am certainly not going to be saying anything more."

According to Cabinet Office Minister Tessa Jowell, Labour was responding to an invitation from the Liberal Democrats to discuss the possibility of co-operation.

"The country did not vote last week for a majority government and until there is another government we, as members of the Cabinet, stay in office," she told GMTV.

"I think that people would accept that it is our obligation to try to provide a stable government for the country and, if the Liberals come to us and say can we discuss with you the possibility of co-operation in circumstances where no party has an overall majority, then I think that people would feel we were pretty irresponsible if we said no."

But some Labour MPs have expressed concerns about a coalition between their party and the Lib Dems.

Former home secretary John Reid said: "I think a Lib-Lab pact would be the wrong thing for the country.

"I fail to see how trying to bring together six different parties - and even then not having a majority - will bring the degree of stability we need."

He added: "Don't forget we have just had the biggest loss of seats in Labour's history.

"If we are perceived to be responding to that by ignoring it and by trying to cobble something together that patently isn't in the national interest then we will face the same thing in the future."

David Blunkett, another former home secretary, warned that a "coalition of the defeated" would spell electoral disaster for Labour.

"If we continue not listening then we will lose very badly at any subsequent general election," he said.

"That would be even worse than a situation where we have a minority government in which we check what they do, whilst acting responsibly in the interests of the nation."

He questioned if the Lib Dems could be trusted, asking: "Can you trust the Liberal Democrats? They are behaving like every harlot in history."

Meanwhile, backbencher Jon Cruddas, tipped as a likely candidate for the Labour leadership, called for any power-sharing deal to be put formally to the wider party for approval.

Mr Cruddas, who is MP for Dagenham and finished third in the 2007 deputy leadership contest, said: "I welcome any discussions about working together for the good of the country.

"To ensure any agreement is stable and strong, the involvement of the Labour Party should be subject to the full agreement of the Labour Party.

"The parliamentary party, the NEC and the affiliated trade unions should be formally consulted on the terms of any talks undertaken by the Prime Minister and Cabinet."

Lord Mandelson, Mr Balls, Lord Adonis, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband left 10 Downing Street just after 10am.

They all refused to comment to waiting reporters.

Alan Johnson arrived at Downing Street around an hour later and went into Number 10 without speaking to the press.

Labour's former head of communications, Alastair Campbell, said Gordon Brown was "genuinely trying to bring sense and some sort of coherence to an unclear outcome" in paving the way for Labour's talks with the Lib Dems.

Speaking while warming up on Chelsea's Stamford Bridge pitch before a charity football match in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Mr Campbell said: "Certain things changed yesterday and certain things didn't. The three options are still only minority Tory government, Tory-Lib Dem or Lib-Lab plus.

"That's not changed. What's changed is that Nick Clegg has obviously asked to have proper discussions with Labour to go alongside those with the Tories and Gordon has set out his own position. As to the talks, I am not directly involved in them, so there's nothing really I can say about that."

He added: "I don't care about headlines and never have done. It's difficult for the newspapers - 80% of them were completely, totally, slavishly behind David Cameron and it appears to have had very little effect on the electorate. I wouldn't worry too much about what the papers say.

"I've watched Gordon Brown over the last few days and I think he is genuinely trying to bring sense and some sort of coherence to an unclear outcome.

"A week ago, lots of opinion polls were saying 'Let's have a hung Parliament'. Well, we've now got a hung Parliament and the politicians have to make sense of it.

"Now the Tories and the Lib Dems rightly - Gordon made that clear on Friday morning - the Tories have the biggest number of seats and it was right Nick Clegg should talk to them to see if there is any way of coming to some sort of arrangement.

"It is entirely up to them. In the end, the election has got to decide a government which commands popular support in the House of Commons. Obviously, I think the reason why I've got involved in the election campaign is because I really think it would be terrible for Britain if David Cameron was Prime Minister and there was a Tory Government, but if that is what happens we'll just have to accept that. I hope that can be prevented."

Health Secretary Andy Burnham declined to comment directly on whether he would stand as a possible successor to Mr Brown.

Speaking before taking part in the charity football match at Stamford Bridge, he said: "It's not for today. The Prime Minister said people will make their decisions in due course. First we've got to concentrate on the job in hand and that is giving the country a stable government.

"The ball is very much now in the Liberal Democrats' court. They have to really make their minds up and that is not something we need to second-guess. They really do now have to make a decision. I think the public's patience will begin to wear thin.

"I think for now those discussions have to take place and have to be given time and space, but there will come a point quickly when people will have to make their mind up about what position they are taking."

He added: "I think the public won't want to see this drag on indefinitely. It doesn't have to be today but it has to be soon and it is right at this moment that Labour explores options with the other parties."

Mr Johnson said later in a statement: "As I have said consistently, renewing our politics means changing our electoral system.

"I wholeheartedly support working in partnership with the Liberal Democrats to secure the economic recovery, protect frontline public services and ensure that the British people decide how their votes are translated into real political power at Westminster."

Labour former deputy prime minister John Prescott said a Lib-Lab deal would be the best option in the interests of the economy and jobs.

He dismissed criticism from Labour figures such as ex-home secretary John Reid as pre-leadership contest manoeuvring by "anti-Brown" politicians.

Mr Reid warned last night that a deal with the Lib Dems would be "the wrong thing for the country" and would damage Labour.

But Mr Prescott told BBC News Channel: "The reality is about jobs - not proportional representation, not jobs in the cabinet, not who is going to be the next prime leader - but how do we keep our economy stable... and Gordon Brown actually produced that in the last 12 months.

"Can we just let's see if Gordon Brown can get an agreement with the Liberals? If that's the case, let's get on with government and keep the economy on a stable footing. That to me is the issue.

"John (Reid) has his own motivations for saying these things. Most of these coming out of the woodwork have been anti-Brown before. That's the reality of what's going to happen about future leadership."

Junior schools minister Diana Johnson said she did not think a Labour-Lib Dem agreement would command sufficient MPs.

"I just don't think that, with us at 258 MPs, the numbers stack up," she said.

"It's just on arithmetic - if you look at the figures and what the Liberal Democrats would bring and various other parties would bring, I just don't think the numbers stack up.

"There might be ways round it, but I don't think the numbers are there."

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw insisted a Labour-Lib Dem coalition could work.

"I have always been of that view," he told BBC News.

"I think there is a progressive majority in this country, there was in the election, and we have a lot in common with the Liberal Democrats.

"And I still don't quite see how the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives will work in the long term when there is such a big gulf between them on so many of the major issues."

Insisting that no party won the election, Mr Bradshaw said: "It's who can command a majority in the House of Commons. That's our constitution."

Former lord chancellor Lord Falconer said Mr Brown should "call it quits now" on efforts to form a coalition government with the Lib Dems.

Lord Falconer told the BBC: "I think we are not going to form this progressive alliance. It was right to start talks yesterday because it may be that what the Liberal Democrats were saying was that they couldn't do a deal with the Tories.

"But if it's plain that they can and the only way that one can do a deal with the Liberal Democrats was offering things that wouldn't be acceptable to a majority in the Labour Party, then I think we've got to stop."

But Lord Falconer said it was too early for Mr Brown to go to the Palace and tender his resignation: "I think you've got to wait and see what the Tories and Liberal Democrats produce.

"If they don't do a deal, then I think there would be a new situation."