Cameron agrees to meet Scottish leader on referendum

David Cameron has agreed to meet Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond in a bid to resolve a row over an independence referendum, the British Prime Minister's spokesman said Sunday. The spokesman for Cameron's Downing Street office said: "The PM has made it clear he is happy to meet Alex Salmond and arrangements for that will be made in the coming days." Salmond's spokesman, who had earlier accused Cameron of being "uncomfortable" and of trying to avoid holding talks with the Scottish leader, hailed the move as "real progress". Cameron has said he wants a referendum to take place as soon as possible, putting him at odds with Salmond's Scottish National Party (SNP) which is eyeing a vote in 2014. Michael Moore, the British minister for Scotland in the United Kingdom's London-based government, has asked for a meeting with Salmond to discuss the clash over the vote which could break up a 305-year-old union. The Downing Street spokesman said the prime minister hoped Salmond would meet Moore on Thursday, the day after the semi-autonomous Scottish government is due to publish a consultation document on the referendum. Salmond's spokesman said the Scottish leader was happy to meet with Moore, but the meeting would have to come after the "detailed" consultation paper was published. A constitutional clash erupted on Tuesday after Cameron's government announced that only the parliament in London had the legal power to set the terms for a referendum, and said the vote should be held as soon as possible. Salmond hit back hours after the announcement, saying that the devolved Scottish government would hold an independence referendum in late 2014, and on its own terms. There is also disagreement about whether there should be a single question -- London's favoured option -- asking Scottish voters if they want to be "in or out". Salmond also wants to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. His spokesman said there should be discussion of a third voting option branded "devo max", which would stop short of full independence and see Scotland retain ties to the UK such as shared military endeavour. Salmond has been pushing for a referendum since elections last year, when the SNP won the first majority in the Edinburgh parliament since its formation in 1999, following devolution from the UK in 1998. An opinion poll published in the Mail on Sunday showed that only 26 percent of Scots backed independence from Britain. Some 29 percent of English and Welsh people who were polled supported Scottish independence. A poll in the Sunday Telegraph found that 40 percent of Scots backed independence, against 43 percent among the English who wanted Scotland out of the union. Former British finance minister Alistair Darling, widely tipped to head the pro-Union campaign, warned in the Observer newspaper that independence would bring "immense" economic difficulties and would be an "amazing" risk. "The downsides are immense, the risks are amazing, the uncertainties I just don't think are worth gambling on," Darling said. "There are times when you should gamble and there are times when you shouldn't." The UK population is 62.2 million, with 5.2 million living in Scotland.