SPAIN'S deputy prime minister has said Catalonia's leader did not give an adequate response in his letter about the region's independence and has until Thursday to comply with the country's laws.

Carles Puigdemont's letter, issued two hours before a Monday deadline, did not clarify whether he in fact declared Catalonia's independence from Spain.

He called for talks with Spain's government.

Spain's central government wanted a simple "yes" or "no" answer from Mr Puigdemont, something that Spanish deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said that he did not provide.

Ms Saenz de Santamaria said in an address to reporters that "it wasn't very difficult to say yes or no".

“It shouldn’t have been too hard to answer yes or no on whether independence has been declared,” she said.

“I don’t think it would have been a complicated reply. With an issue as important as this, all we ask is clarity. Prolonging the uncertainty through deliberate confusion only serves those who want to do away with civic harmony.”

She said he has until Thursday morning to fall in line, or faces the possibility of Spain activating Article 155 of the Constitution which would allow the central government to take over parts of Catalonia's self-governance.

She said Mr Puigdemont's call for dialogue is "not credible" and that Spain's national parliament is the place to talk.

Ms Sáenz de Santamaría added that the Spanish government's handling of the Catalonia crisis was widely backed in the Spanish parliament.

However Catalan TV station TV3 said Mr Puigdemont would not respond by the Thursday deadline, citing several sources.

Mr Puigdemont had called for dialogue with Madrid and asked for meeting with the country's prime minister Mariano Rajoy, complying with a Monday deadline to respond to a request from the central government to state explicitly whether he had declared independence.

But Mr Puigdemont's letter, released about two hours before the deadline was set to expire, did not clarify whether he indeed had proclaimed that Catalonia had broken away from Spain.

Mr Puigdemont replied with a four-page letter seeking two months of negotiations and mediation.

In the letter, Mr Puigdemont said: “Despite everything that has happened, our offer of dialogue is sincere.

“But logically it is incompatible with the current climate of growing repression and menace … Let’s agree, as soon as possible, to a meeting that will allow us to explore initial agreements

"For the next two months, our main objective is to bring you to dialogue," he said.

"Let's not let the situation deteriorate further. With good will, recognising the problem and facing it head on, I am sure we can find the path to a solution.

“We want to talk – as people do in established democracies – about the problem facing the majority of Catalan people who want to begin their journey as an independent country in Europe. The suspension of the political mandate received at the ballot box on 1 October shows our firm desire to find a solution and not confrontation.”

Spain has repeatedly said that it is not willing to sit down with Mr Puigdemont if calls for independence are on the table, or accept any form of international mediation.

The crisis emerged followed Catalonia's controversial independence referendum result earlier this month.

The vote was declared illegal by Spain's Constitutional Court.

Catalan authorities said that slightly fewer than 90 per cent of voters backed independence, although the turnout for the poll was only 43 per cent.

Polling day was marred by scenes of violence as Spain's police confiscated ballot boxes and attempted to prevent members of the public entering polling stations.

The violence has also led to a Spanish prosecutor asking for Catalonia's regional police chief to be jailed in a sedition case related to the staging of the referendum.

Major Josep Lluis Trapero gave evidence for about two hours at Madrid's National Court on Monday, following which the court prosecutor recommended he be sent to prison provisionally without bail.

The judge will decide on the request later.

Maj Trapero, another regional police offer and the leaders of two pro-independence associations are under investigation for sedition for their roles in September 20-21 demonstrations in Barcelona as Spanish police arrested several Catalan officials and raided offices in a crackdown on referendum preparations.

Mr Puigdemont’s government is also under pressure from factions in the Catalan independence movement who want to declare independence immediately.

Its junior coalition partners, the far-left separatist party CUP, wanted an outright independence declaration last week and are now urging Mr Puigdemont to ignore the Spanish government and make a definitive proclamation of independence.

And the Catalan national assembly, a pro-independence civil society group, has also said that it no longer makes sense “to keep the suspension of the independence declaration”.