Newfoundland and Labrador's premier said Wednesday it was his late-evening phone call that broke the deadlock between negotiators for the province and the nurses union that led to a tentative agreement to keep nurses on the job.

Premier Danny Williams told reporters he and Finance Minister Jerome Kennedy had just finished meeting with government negotiators at around 9 p.m. Tuesday — a meeting in which Williams said his negotiators suggested the nurses seemed ready to give in a little.

"We'd seen an indication that, you know, perhaps the nurses were prepared to move on one of the principles," he said.

Williams said he tried to reach Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses' Union head Debbie Forward, but spoke instead to a senior union official.

"We felt it was worth going back to the table one more time to see if we could find a ground," he said.

Williams said he wasn't in the negotiating room, but he kept in contact by phone until a deal was reached just after 5 a.m.

Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones said the premier got involved because of a CBC News story about an elderly woman who was scared because her breast cancer surgery scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled.

"I think in the back of their minds they were realizing there were a lot of Agnes McCarthys out there in the province. And I think anyone who saw her story on the news last night, it would've brought home the reality of what we're dealing with in shutting down hospitals in this province," she said.

The premier denied that, saying neither side wanted a strike, so they kept negotiating until both sides compromised enough to reach an agreement.