Negotiations to find an agreement over the controversial contract for junior doctors have entered a fourth day.

The British Medical Association (BMA) and Department of Health officials returned to the negotiating table on Monday in a bid to resolve the dispute.

The talks at the conciliation service Acas began after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt agreed to a five-day pause in the imposition of the new junior doctors' contract.

Around 90% of the contract had previously been agreed, but the main bone of contention was over whether Saturdays should attract extra "unsocial" payments.

Dr Johann Malawana, chairman of the BMA's junior doctors' committee, has said that any contract - agreed or not - should be put to a referendum of junior doctors.

Medics will be convening in London this weekend for the BMA's junior doctors' conference.

The agreement to resume talks follows a wave of industrial action launched by junior doctors in recent months, which saw thousands of operations cancelled.

The resumption of negotiations was brokered by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in an effort to resolve the dispute.

Junior doctors stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history during their most recent walkout.

More than 125,000 appointments and operations were cancelled and will need to be rearranged, on top of almost 25,000 procedures cancelled during previous action.