TORONTO — Prime Minister Paul Martin could win the support of the New Democrats and avoid a spring election by cutting corporate tax cuts and addressing Ontario's so-called fiscal gap, NDP leader Jack Layton said Monday.

"If he's willing to take some of the surplus, if he's willing to reduce the corporate tax cut and invest it now, then we don't have to have an election,'' Layton told reporters.

"Then we could talk about supporting the government.''

Layton joined Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton at a news conference to talk about Premier Dalton McGuinty's complaint that the province pays $23 billion more to Ottawa than it receives in federal programs and transfers.

But questions quickly turned to a possible Conservative non-confidence motion in the minority Liberal government because of allegations of kickbacks and corruption coming from the Gomery inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal.

"I think I can say it would be highly unlikely our party would support a non-confidence motion right now,'' said Layton.

"We're taking it a day at a time, a week at a time.''

Layton said he personally was "furious'' about allegations of brown envelopes full of cash being given to Liberals in Quebec, but said most Canadians need more time to digest the testimony from the sponsorship inquiry.

"At the moment there's a rising anger, but for most people it doesn't seem to have reached that tipping point of saying, `Let's go to the polls,' '' he said.

"They're frankly a little bit sick and tired of the attention that's always paid to the Liberals defending themselves from their own corruption.''

Layton said that Martin's refusal to trim the corporate tax cuts in this year's federal budget and deal with Ontario's complaints about a fiscal gap could result in a quick end to the minority Liberal government elected last June.

"If the budget were changed so that people's actual needs in their families were addressed, that opens the door for a continuation of the House of Commons and this particular Parliament,'' he said.

"That door is slammed shut by virtue of Paul Martin's complete intransigence when it comes to these issues. He wants to give money to his corporate friends.''

One newspaper report Monday quoted unnamed sources who said the Conservatives won't enter a motion of non-confidence without the support of the New Democrats.

But Layton said bringing down Martin's scandal-plagued Liberals is not the NDP's top priority right now, and called his proposal to support the minority government if Martin agrees to his terms "a more effective strategy.''