According to news reports, NDP Leader Jack Layton has given PM PM until Tuesday to decide whether to gas almost $5 billion in corporate tax cuts in exchange for NDP support on the federal budget.

The two did have their meeting Sunday night. Nothing was resolved.

But PM said while he's willing to discuss adding spending in areas of interest to the NDP (housing, environment, child care, etc.), the corporate tax cuts stay.

On Sunday, the Canadian business community also spoke out against eliminating the cuts.

But in reading between the lines, Layton appears to be softening his position. In remarks recorded by a CBC Radio reporter, Layton said he wanted to see the budget do more for people.

Can more be done for people without zapping the corporate tax cuts? Politics, after all, is the art of the possible.

Note this (from the Globe story):

Mr. Layton has said previously that the latest talks with Mr. Martin are geared only to changing the budget. A broader deal for support on a no-confidence vote is a different question, he has said.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper personally put forward a no-confidence motion in the House on Friday in the form of an amendment to a committee report that calls on the Liberal government to resign.

The motion could be put to a vote by the middle of next month.

When is this mythical budget vote supposed to take place? Is it scheduled before or after mid-May? For all the attention being poured on the budget, some key questions about it aren't being answered by news reports.

Anyway, for news coverage, here's the CTV.ca story (with video of Layton's Canada AM appearance), the Star and the Globe.