New Delhi: The Congress Friday reached out to the Nationalist Congress Party after it expressed unhappiness about some aspects of the coalition's working but the strain in their ties continued with NCP deciding to meet Monday to take a final decision on the issues it has raised.

Congress leadership tried through the day to send a positive message across to its estranged ally with party president Sonia Gandhi meeting NCP chief Sharad Pawar in the morning and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh terming him a great asset.

The Congress core group met also took up the issue at a meeting Friday evening and party sources said afterwards that the matter concerning NCP had been "settled." They said the issue was more to do with coordination in the government than any fight for number two position in the union cabinet.

However, NCP sources said they were waiting for the Congress to reach out to them in more concrete terms.

"We will meet Monday afternoon to take a decision. The number two position in the order of precedence is not the issue, the issue is much larger," a NCP leader told IANS.