In practice, the ministers usually talk for as long as necessary to reach a deal they can all live with.

The minister talked for a long time, but he wasn't very interesting.

The agreement was reached when the two ministers talked by telephone for about 20 minutes, the Japanese officials said.

The minister talked about how she was always smiling.

Black ministers also talked of learning from the experience of the trial.

"I don't know what the prime minister is talking about," he said.

"One minister talked about a former gambling addiction," he writes.

The German foreign minister is always talking about 'energy foreign policy'.

"The prime minister is not talking and thinking about general elections," a spokesman said in London today.

The £600 million the minister is talking about seems like a small thing in comparison.