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Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says he left a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper Monday afternoon with a clear message: There will be a fall election.

"(Harper) doesn't want Canadians to have too much time to see he is ill-prepared to face the economy . . . he doesn't want to face byelections," Dion told reporters.

Dion called the 20-minute meeting a "charade" and repeatedly took Harper to task for his willingness to call an election before the fixed election date of October 2009.

Sources say Harper will dissolve Parliament by this Sunday and set an election date for Oct. 14 of this year.

The prime minister's spokesperson, Kory Teneycke, said that Dion was asked if he would support the Conservative minority government until the fixed election date, but refused.

"Mr. Dion could find no area of common ground with the government to move forward with a legislative agenda," Teneycke told reporters.

But Dion said that the Liberals have opposed the Conservatives from the start of the minority government in 2006 and said that the prime minister was being politically opportunistic in his election timing.

Teneycke countered that, "We are in uncertain economic times and there are a number of things that government would like to move forward on and it's fair to say that the atmosphere has become more partisan.

"The opposition clearly wants an election."

CTV's Mike Duffy said that Dion played exactly the way that Conservatives expected him to and said Harper will be able to say on the campaign trail that he tried to work with the opposition.

"There will be some Liberals . . . that say, 'Jean Chr�tien would never have fallen into this trap,'" Duffy told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet Monday afternoon.

Election done deal

Harper has already met with New Democratic Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe to talk about the fall session of Parliament.

Both leaders said Harper will soon drop the writ, despite legislation introduced by the Conservatives that set the mandatory election date.

Dion had earlier refused to meet with Harper prior to three byelections scheduled for Sept. 8.

But in a statement before the meeting, Dion suggested he changed his mind in order to ask Harper why he was in such a rush to send Canadians to the polls ahead of the fixed election date.

"I will ask Stephen Harper face to face to explain why he is in such a rush to violate the spirit of his own legislation," Dion said in the statement. "I will ask him to explain why he wants to break his word, yet again."

Harper has maintained in recent days that Parliament has been dysfunctional and the opposition parties have been pushing for an election for months.

He also said the legislation that set fixed election dates -- a centre-piece for the Tories in the last election -- only applies to majority-government situations.

Harper's aides have suggested the prime minister is likely to drop the election writ on Sept. 5 or 6, with Canadians going to the polls on Oct. 14.