Australia's three top mining companies have called a meeting with the government to clarify the tax agreement seen on the brink of collapse.

In spite a publicly stated reassurance from no less than Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the mining companies are still wary that there has been changes with the government's plan.

Reports have confirmed that BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Xstrata have called for an immediate and urgent meeting with Australian government officials to review the deal seen on the brink of collapse.

The issue arose on the state royalties and how this can be offset with the planned mineral resources rent tax.

Although the Australian three states, Western Australian, Queensland, and South Australian Governments have no immediate plans to increase their state mining royalties, the companies would like to clarify this issue with urgency.

Reports gathered showed the MRRT agreement forged on July 2 allowed for all state royalties to be offset against the tax, regardless of the implementing date, which according to the Australian and news.com.au is also the view supported by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

However, Australian Resources and Energy Minister Mr. Martin Ferguson had said future increases in state royalties could not be offset by cuts to the planned 30 percent mining tax on iron ore and coal. The deal is now limited to to state royalties that were in place or "scheduled" when the original resource super-profits tax was announced in May.

"The government's position on this issue is clear - royalty rates that applied or changes to royalty rates that were scheduled to apply in the future, as at May 2, 2010, will be credited," Mr. Ferguson said in an e-mailed statement today and reported on Bloomberg.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Parliament yesterday she would not allow commonwealth revenue from the MRRT to suffer by allowing the states and territories to increase mining royalty rates.

"In implementing the mineral resources rent tax, we obviously won't be giving a green light to state and territory governments to increase their royalties in a way which means the federal government effectively foots the bill," Ms Gillard said.