JEFFERSON CITY -- Twenty-four hours after his Department head broke the soil, Gov. Matt Blunt sowed the seeds of reconciliation with Attorney General Jay Nixon yesterday over dueling lawsuits.

Republican Blunt yesterday wrote Democrat Nixon requesting a face-to-face meeting in his office aimed at constructing a final, unified state offer with St. Louis-based utility Ameren. Blunt will likely face Nixon in the 2008 race for Missouri Governor.

Blunt's letter was in response to a letter Nixon sent Ameren Monday requiring, in part, that the utility spend $350 million rebuilding the Taum Sauk dam, the AP reported. The DNR seeks $125 million in damages from Ameren while Nixon hasn't yet stated what damages he will claim.

Reactions to Nixon's letter from Ameren and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) were quick and positive.

On Tuesday DNR director Doyle Childers, a Blunt appointee and former Republican state legislator, said he was now "very optimistic" about a unified settlement, LegalNewsLine reported. Childers had slammed Nixon at a press conference one week earlier.

And after yesterday's announcement, Ameren spokesman Tim Fox told the AP that recent developments on the suit "over the past several weeks...form the basis for constructive settlement discussions."

Nixon has agreed to the meeting with Blunt plus Childers and other staffers but no date has been set. The two had been fueding since the dam broke in late 2005, after which the Department of Natural Resources launched a civil suit and Nixon a criminal investigation.

Blunt said in his letter to the attorney general that Nixon must inform him and Ameren about whether or when criminal charges will be filed against the utility over the incident.