A meeting slated this morning between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil on government formation was deferred apparently because the list of the Council of Ministers was yet to be finalised.

Singh, who was scheduled to meet the President at 10.30 am, is expected to do so later in the day.

Some of the UPA allies are bargaining hard for more berths in the Union Cabinet.

The Congress is under pressure from its ally DMK which is seeking nine ministerial berths and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is insisting on getting one more ministerial portfolio than what the DMK gets. While the DMK has won 18 Lok Sabha seats, TMC has got 19.

Meanwhile, NDTV has learnt about some of the frontrunners for Manmohan Singh's core group of ministers. Sources have told NDTV that they include:

Pranab Mukherjee as Finance Minister - a portfolio that he held in the previous Cabinet as well.

P Chidambaram as Home Minister - again a portfolio that he held in the previous Cabinet.
AK Antony may continue as the Defence Minister.

Kapil Sibal may take over as Human Resource Development Minister. Arjun Singh was the HRD Minister in the previous Cabinet.

Sharad Pawar may yet again grab the Agriculture portfolio. No change is expected in the ministry.

Praful Patel is most likely to stay with the Civil Aviation Ministry. HR Bhardwaj could be the Law Minister again.

Salman Khurshid may be made the Minority Affairs Minister. He was not holding any portfolio in the earlier Cabinet.

Foreign affairs: Proving to be the tough one... There are many contenders -

Kamal Nath, SM Krishna, Kapil Sibal. Another possibility is of Salman Khurshid being made Minister of State with Independent Charge.

For the Railways, DMK and TMC may be locked in a close fight.

Congress doesn't want A Raja and TR Baalu back. Also, it is willing to give only IT, not Telecom to DMK. Dayanidhi Maran is the frontrunner for IT

Civil Aviation - Praful Patel is the current minister. Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jyotiraditya Scindia are the other contenders.

Surface Transport - may go to the NCP, which makes Praful Patel one of the top contenders.

(With PTI inputs)