KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister-elect John Key is moving quickly to reach a deal that will let him form a government.
Act leader Rodney Hide and United Future's sole MP, Peter Dunne, are likely to get ministerial roles outside Cabinet - a deal structure pioneered by Helen Clark.
Act, which has five MPs in the new Parliament, could get two positions in Mr Key's government.
The incoming PM flew to Wellington yesterday and spent the day trying to form a government quickly enough to enable him to travel to the Apec leaders' summit in Peru on Tuesday next week as Prime Minister.
He and his deputy, Bill English, met Mr Hide and and Act deputy leader Heather Roy at Parliament and the group emerged to say there would be a National-led government.
But they are still working through policy and ministerial deals and will meet again today.
"Act put on the table some policy areas of great concern to them. We're working through those," Mr Key said.
"The progress they would want made in those areas looked reasonable to me."
Act's push was for the three main policy planks on which it campaigned - a "three strikes and you're out" law and order policy, scrapping the emissions trading scheme, and capping government spending.
While Mr Hide is making strong comments about the policies, he is also saying he has no bottom lines in the negotiations.
"We were clear in this campaign that we would support John Key as Prime Minister," he said.
"We will honour that commitment. We're not about to swing our toys out of the sandpit because we don't get what we want."
Election-night results gave National 59 seats in Parliament, and it could govern with the support of Act's five MPs. But Mr Key wants to stitch up deals that would cover 70 votes - including the Maori Party's five.
He revealed yesterday that it was likely Mr Hide's ministerial role would be outside the Cabinet, an arrangement Helen Clark had with Mr Dunne and NZ First leader Winston Peters.
National criticised the format when Helen Clark pioneered it, but Mr Key was positive yesterday.
National does not need Mr Dunne's single vote to govern, but the pair made a deal before the election that the United Future leader would get a ministerial role for his support.
Mr Key is intending to honour that agreement, giving Mr Dunne a post ahead of one of his own MPs, despite United Future's drawing only 0.9 per cent of the party vote on Saturday.
"We're going to work in good faith, and just because we're the largest it doesn't mean we're bullies," Mr Key said.
He praised Mr Dunne's experience, but neither man was willing to talk about what portfolio the United Future leader might take.
Discussing Mr Hide, Mr Key responded to questions about economic portfolios by noting the Act leader's credentials in that area.
"I don't want to pre-judge it today, but Mr Hide has considerable economic experience," he said.
Mr Hide said he thought something could be concluded this week.
Mr Key has not yet contacted the Governor-General, Anand Satyanand, to say he can form a government, and suggested yesterday he would rather have written agreements with United Future and Act before he does so.
A deal with the Maori Party could take longer, and might not be concluded before Mr Key becomes Prime Minister.
