OTTAWA - CANADA'S prime minister will call snap elections soon, opposition leader Stephane Dion said on Monday after the two failed to agree on a common agenda for the upcoming session of Parliament.

'Yes, there will be an election,' the Liberal leader said after meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at his official residence, citing a 'gulf of differences between us and this very Conservative government.'

Harper's chief spokesman Kory Teneycke said the prime minister could decide in as little as two or three days whether or not to hold a general election, citing irreconcilable differences between the parties.

'He'll have to deliberate over the next few days and make a decision in due course,' Mr Teneycke said.

Mr Harper, who has headed a minority government since January 2006, has insisted in recent weeks that elections were inevitable to break a deadlock with opposition parties on several issues.

However, he faces criticism that doing so would break his own timetable for the next elections in October 2009 - a date he set into law, but which allows for leeway in the case of minority governments.

In a bid to find common ground and avoid going to the polls, Mr Harper met since Friday with the leaders of Canada's three opposition parties, including Mr Dion, who leads the biggest faction.

But none of the opposition leaders in speaking with reporters gave any indications they would support the government going forward. To survive, the government needs the support of at least one of the three opposition parties.

Mr Harper asked Mr Dion 'if he would give him assurances that the government would be allowed to continue until fall 2009. He provided no such assurance,' Mr Teneycke said.

'If they wanted to avoid an election, they (opposition leaders) would identify areas of common ground where the government could move forward, and without exception none of them have been able to identify areas of common ground,' he said.

'We are in uncertain economic times and there are a number of things the government would like to move forward on and I think it's fair to say that the atmosphere in Parliament has become more partisan and it's more difficult to get things accomplished'.

'We're simply looking for broad areas of agreement where the government could proceed with and there were no areas identified by the opposition leaders where we had any common ground'.

For their part, opposition leaders said Mr Harper was determined to set off elections, regardless of the outcome of talks with them, and accused him of concocting a 'fake' deadlock for political gain.

They pointed to some 40 bills passed by the government during its nearly two years in office.

'In the past it was proved that depending on the issues, a party or another could be in agreement with the government,' and prop up Mr Harper's minority government, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe said on Friday.

Now, 'instead of making efforts to try of finding solutions in the best interests of the population, he wants an election in the best interests of his party,' he opined.

'I think his plan is made. He wants an election, period.'

A poll on Friday put the Conservatives at 33 per cent support, down from earlier polls and in a statistical dead heat with the Liberals at 35 per cent.

Pundits suggested Mr Harper needs a new mandate from voters before the economy sours and along with it any goodwill for his party.

It was also suggested Mr Harper fears a victory in upcoming US elections by Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has campaigned for change, could favour Mr Harper's liberal rival here.

Mr Harper's Conservatives have often been criticised at home for being too closely allied with George W. Bush's Republicans.

To wrap up elections before the US vote in November and before Canada hosts a summit of French-speaking countries in mid-October, a writ would have to be dropped by September 7.

Comments by officials point to an election being fought on the economy, taxes, leadership, arts and culture funding, food safety, and the environment. -- AFP