The Green Party has accused George Galloway of misleading voters over their failed electoral pact.

The environmentalists said the Glasgow Kelvin MP was wrong to accuse them of scuppering a deal in an interview with ePolitix.com last week.

Since he was expelled from the Labour Party last year Galloway has set up his own political group, Respect, which is fielding candidates across the country in the European elections next month.

With both Respect and the Greens strongly opposed to the war in Iraq, attempts were made to unite rather than divide the anti-war vote.

But Galloway's version of events differs widely from the Greens.

"We tried everything we could to reach an electoral pact with them," the MP told this website.

""We offered to found joint lists with them, for example that I would stand in London as number two and [Green MEP] Jean Lambert as number one.

"We offered to have a joint list in the South East with [Green MEP] Caroline Lucas as number one. We even agreed in the South East that we would take only one place on the list at number eight.

"We tried very, very hard. I even, out of my own pocket, bought the leaders of the Green Party a slap up dinner but before the soup was over it was clear that their idea of negotiation was that we had to disappear. They were not prepared to have joint lists.

"They were not prepared to stand down anywhere. They were not prepared to have any Green Party candidate, however lowly placed on their list, to be replaced by a Respect candidate."

Letter

However Green chairman Hugo Charlton has written to Galloway urging him to correct this impression.

He argued that by the time Galloway made his approach the Greens had already selected their candidates.

"I understand that at meetings and in the media you are saying that you offered to be second on our European list to Jean Lambert in London," Charlton wrote.

"I do not believe that to be true, certainly no such suggestion has ever been communicated to me, and I would be grateful if you could tell me when, where and to whom this proposition was made.

"Whilst it was true our talks on electoral co-operation had ground to a halt before the soup arrived, that was because I explained that our internal democratic structures would not allow us not to stand candidates who had already been democratically chosen by their regions.

"As we were 'not prepared to stand down somewhere', you were determined to stand against us in all the seats, despite the fact that Dr Caroline Lucas in particular was widely respected for her stance against the war."

Galloway has said he hopes both parties can resolve the dispute in time for a likely general election next year.

But the Greens fear his alleged wilful misrepresentation is a deliberate election ploy which could hit their chances of retaining their two MEPs and making further gains.