NHS consultants have urged the government to reach a national deal to end the current pay and conditions dispute.

BMA chiefs say they want to reach a "peaceful resolution" with the Department of Health over changes to their contracts which were rejected by senior doctors in October last year.

Doctors voted against the plans despite two years of negotiations in protest at proposals for evening and weekend work.

The new negotiating team will meet health secretary Alan Milburn on today for the first time.

It will discuss three options proposed by the minister last month.

Milburn said he could simply implement the contract, introduce annual incentives based on performance or boost the current system by increasing the value of the discretionary points on the salary scale.

The health secretary has signalled he is prepared to fund locally-agreed deals with £133 million but the BMA has called for a national agreement.

Ahead of the meeting the BMA said it did not expect "substantial movement" and there were no new ideas to consider although it welcomed Milburn's proposals.

A DoH spokesman said the government was unlikely to reject the work it had put into the contracts and that the central principle remained of "rewarding those consultants who do most for the NHS".

"Given the work we have put into the annual incentives, I would be surprised if we ditched them," a spokesman said.