The Ngapuhi body claiming a mandate to settle the iwi's Treaty claims has agreed to reconsider a mediation report it recently dismissed as an insult.
The report by the Government's mediator, Tukoroirangi Morgan, recommended a new strategy, with better representation of hapu who challenge the mandate.
Ngapuhi leader Sonny Tau described the Morgan Report as an amateurish bid to re-engineer the tribe's social structures.
Mr Tau says elders have now instructed the runanga's mandate committee, Tuhoronuku, to consider aspects of the report that strengthen Ngapuhi representation.
However, he says the kuia and kaumatua also directed Tuhoronuku to meet the Crown and hasten the next step - the advertising of the deed of mandate for public comment.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson has so far declined to do that, and urged the Ngapuhi factions to resolve their differences.
