Prime Minister Paul Martin started a full-court media blitz Friday, but his day ended with word he was seeking a meeting with NDP Leader Jack Layton.

On Thursday, Layton had offered to throw his 19-member caucus's support to the minority Liberal government -- if the Liberals altered their budget to cancel billions in corporate tax cuts.

While he didn't close the door, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale sounded cool towards the NDP's proposal earlier on Friday.

Jane Taber, senior political writer with The Globe and Mail, told CTV Newsnet she wasn't sure how negotiations between the Liberals and NDP were going.

"I think there will be a few attempts at something because I just don't think the Liberals are going give up this easily, or are the New Democrats," she said.

The NDP, however, doesn't have enough members to guarantee the government's survival.

The numbers right now are this:

• Liberals: 131 plus the Speaker
• Conservatives: 99
• Bloc Quebecois: 54
• NDP: 19
• Independents: 3
• Vacant: 1

The Bloc and the Conservatives have a combined 153 votes, although two Tory MPs are reportedly too ill to travel to Ottawa. The two parties' working total might be 151.

The Liberals and NDP would have a combined 150 votes.

Of the three Independents, B.C.'s Chuck Cadman has said he would not support a non-confidence motion, ex-Liberal and Alberta MP David Kilgour has said he would, and ex-Liberal and Ontario MP Carolyn Parrish has said nothing so far -- although she did vote for the budget.

That would put the potential total at 152-150 for a non-confidence motion.

If Parrish and Cadman supported the government and Speaker Peter Milliken voted to break the tie, the Liberals could survive.

One rumour on Parliament Hill was that some Trudeau-era Liberals were urging Martin to appoint some Tory MPs to the Senate to further lessen the chance of a successful non-confidence vote.

"They're always thinking," Taber said.

Liberal strategists are currently reading old books and Parliamentary to gain some insight into how they might survive, she said.

Failing that, "they want an issue-based defeat," she said, adding the big fight seems to be over controlling the timing of the government's defeat.

The media tour

Martin did 14 interviews on Friday, arguing for a delay in any election until Justice John Gomery files his final report into the sponsorship scandal, a report expected in December. He promised Thursday to call an election within 30 days of Gomery tabling his report.

But Conservative Leader Stephen Harper noted that didn't stop Martin from calling an election last year.

"Mr. Martin wants to have an election without Gomery. Now he wants Gomery without an election. What he's always trying to avoid is having the two together."

To compound Martin's problems, former prime minister Jean Chretien's lawyers will be going to court next week to have Gomery removed as the inquiry's commissioner, claiming he is biased.

Martin said his government would oppose that move.

"We are going to fight to keep the inquiry going, and there's no doubt in my mind t he courts, if it comes to that, will allow the inquiry to go on," he said.

The Liberals also tried to fight back against some nasty Conservative name-calling.

They jumped on an aide who compared Martin's pre-recorded speech Thursday night to taped addresses from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in his cave.

"I don't think comparing the prime minister of Canada to Osama bin Laden, to a mass murderer and a terrorist -- is a joke," said Public Works Minister Scott Brison.

But Conservative MP Jason Kenney took the opportunity to remind the House that "on September 28 of 1998, (Brison) referred to the current prime minister as Genghis Khan."

Not all Liberals were in a fighting mood.

"I'm proud I chose to become a politician," Defence Minister Bill Graham said. "I'm disturbed by the current circumstances."

But in Edmonton, where she is now the lone Liberal caucus member in a province that elected 26 Conservatives, Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said she would run again.

"I have absolute confidence in the voters, and the voters will decide -- in terms of how important they think this issue is in relation to other things that matter to them ...," she told reporters.

With Parliament on a break next week, CTV's Roger Smith said political heavy hitters with all parties will likely spend time in Ontario, where 106 of 308 seats are up for grabs.

With a report from CTV's Roger Smith and files from The Canadian Press