SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A unique approach has been adopted to move the Akaitcho negotiations process forward.

The three parties in the talks - Ottawa, the GNWT and the Akaitcho Dene First Nations - agreed earlier this year that the Akaitcho will draft an agreement-in-principle on its own.

Chief federal negotiator John Klassen said it is a unique approach that hasn't been tried on negotiations anywhere else in Canada, as far as he knows.

"We will look at the draft and sit down and discuss it," he said.

Klassen said the idea was discussed in January and February and implemented in March.

"I would say it was a consensus among the three of us that we should try something new," he said.

The aim is to have a draft prepared by early 2010.

An agreement-in-principle will be a step towards a final agreement that will clarify who owns and has rights to land and resources in the Akaitcho region and how it will be governed.

The Akaitcho negotiations involve First Nations in four communities around Great Slave Lake - Deninu Ku'e (Fort Resolution), Lutsel K'e, Ndilo and Dettah.

Klassen said, prior to the new approach being adopted, the three sides were fully engaged in the negotiations process and it wasn't deadlocked. "But we didn't feel we were making the progress we should be making.... We felt we could be going further and faster."

The federal negotiator declined to say what issues still need to be resolved because of the confidentiality of the negotiations.

However, he said, "To be frank, there are some differences among us."

Klassen said the Akaitcho side has three agreements from the Tlicho, Gwich'in and Sahtu regions to refer to while developing the draft.

A framework agreement for the Akaitcho negotiations was signed in 2000 and an interim measures agreement was signed in mid-2001.

Later in 2001, formal negotiations began on an agreement-in-principle.

Klassen, who has been the federal chief negotiator for two years, said that doesn't mean there have been eight years of intense negotiations.

Instead, he said there have been moments of hiatus, including when there was no federal negotiator.

"It's not as if we haven't achieved anything," he added, adding there was a land withdrawal agreement in 2007.

The chiefs of Deninu Ku'e First Nation in Fort Resolution, Lutsel K'e First Nation and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (Ndilo and Dettah) are the Akaitcho's official spokespersons for the negotiations.

Two declined to comment on the negotiations, while two others could not be reached.