Bahrain's second round of National Dialogue talks could be successfully concluded within eight weeks, our sister newspaper, the Gulf Daily News reported.

Opposition societies and coalition groups taking part in the process agree on the key issues facing the country and only need to work out the best way forward, said National Unity Assembly (NUA) secretary-general Abdulla Al Huwaihi.

He said participants hoped to revive the seven-point plan put forward by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander, in March 2011.

It centred on a parliament with full authority, a government that represents the will of the people, fair voting districts, combating corruption, a review of naturalisation, state property and addressing sectarian tensions.

"The Crown Prince's seven points that were introduced during the unrest as a bid to defuse tension are accepted by both the coalition and the opposition, but we have different ceilings that take parallel paths that we have to bend for agreement," said Al Huwaihi.

"We want to see a government through public acceptance and we want to see more powers to parliament and better constituencies and so on, but the opposition's demands are very high following their high ceiling.”

"Working through the same vision will make consensus easier and from early readings we expect this dialogue to be complete with results within eight weeks."

Al Huwaihi said the coalition of societies was willing to be flexible.

"We just have to wait and see how the other side will approach our visions. We will accordingly introduce what we want politics in this country to look like," he said.

The coalition of nine societies includes the NUA, National Action Charter Society, Al Menbar National Islamic Society, Al Asala Islamic Society, Al Wasat Arab Islamic Society, National Constitutional Assembly, National Dialogue Society, Al Shura Islamic Society and Al Saf Islamic Society.

It has already presented dialogue facilitators with nine concepts that seek to define exactly how it will be decided that participants have reached consensus. – TradeArabia News Service