The new contract was introduced in 2004

GPs secured a deal in 2004 which allowed them to give up out-of-hours work. It has also seen their pay soar through the �100,000 mark.

But Health Secretary Alan Johnson said he wanted to see more evening and weekend opening, saying current working hours were an "anomaly".

Doctors said opening at weekends and evenings meant closing at other times.

The issue of out-of-hours care has been a long-running sore since the contact started three years ago.

If you open on a Saturday morning - and I don't think there is any wish among GPs - they would have to shut some other time Dr Laurence Buckman, of the BMA

Nine in 10 GPs took up the option of relinquishing responsibility for out-of-hours care, leaving it to local health chiefs to employ private firms or co-operatives of doctors, nurses and ambulance staff to provide the service.

It has led to accusations that weekend and night care has suffered.

The government is not seeking a return to GPs being on call all through the night.

But it does want to see extended opening in the evening and on Saturday morning to give patients more flexibility to fit in appointments around their working day.

Mr Johnson said he was seeking to work with the doctors' trade union, the British Medical Association, to ensure the health service was "fit for the 21st century".

"I think there is a bit of an anomaly that there is half day closing on Wednesdays and Thursdays and you can't get to see a GP after you leave work.

"Many GPs practices are addressing that and opening on a Saturday morning. We want to see that more widespread."

Access

The government has already set up a specialist working group to look at the issue and Department of Health representatives will be meeting with local health chiefs this month to discuss how GP access can be improved.

But it comes just weeks after a poll of over 2m patients - the most extensive survey of its kind - found over 80% were happy with opening hours.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs committee, said: "If you open on a Saturday morning - and I don't think there is any wish among GPs - they would have to shut some other time.

"No other professional operates a weekend service."

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Three years ago this government entered into a new GP contract which set out GP hours and they messed it up.

"Now they are in the bizarre position of criticising a situation which they created but insist on blaming GPs instead of themselves."