The New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has told 1 NEWS political editor Corin Dann that he will return Bill English's phone call this morning.

Mr English revealed this morning that he called Mr Peters ahead of likely coalition talks but that Mr Peters did not return the call.

Winston Peters this morning that by the time he was aware that Mr English had made a call and left a message, it was too late to call back.

He says he will return the call this morning.

Mr Peters is king or queenmaker after the election left National needing NZ First to form a two-party coalition and Labour also needing NZ First and the Greens to be able to govern.

"We can only go at the pace NZ First decides to go at, they're in quite a challenging situation," Mr English said.

Mr Peters is waiting until the special votes are completely counted on October 7 to begin negotiations, and expects a final decision to be reached on October 12.

Mr English said that timeframe was "extremely tight".