City council leader John Goddard has hinted his Liberal Democrat administration would be prepared to throw in the towel if it fails to get an "adequate" amount of its budget passed on Monday.

And the spectre of a second change in leadership at the Town Hall in less than a year looks increasingly likely, with rival parties opposed to two controversial Lib Dem budget proposals.

Political disagreement surrounds the under-threat play areas and the creation of a not-for-profit trust to run the authority's failing leisure department.

The Lib Dems have refused to commit to paying for the cost of replacing rusting play areas across the city.

The Oxford Mail revealed last year that refurbishing the 97 play areas would cost £2.5m over six years - and that, as a result, 16 were threatened with closure.

Instead, the group has vowed to devolve the annual £48,000 play area budget between each of the city's six area committees - so responsibility passes from the executive to local councillors.

Meanwhile, the leisure department - parts of which were branded "unacceptable" by auditors last year - would pass to a not-for-profit trust, not under the control of councillors.

Labour, the Greens and the Independent Working Class Association are united in their opposition to the two proposals.

Mr Goddard said: "If it (the budget) is something which the Liberal Democrats are not adequately comfortable with then we would not be the administration because (we) have to feel adequate ownership.

"I would prefer a more stable regime, but if there was a change (of administration) it would not be chaos. My guess is it's likely to be a series of compromises, which leave all groups with less than they would have preferred, but the best that could be obtained in the circumstances."

The Lib Dems took control of the Town Hall in May last year - the first time in 25 years a single party other than Labour had run the council.

But with the Lib Dems having just 17 of the 48 city councillors, they need support from at least eight others for a majority.

Last year, a Valentine's Day union between Labour and the Greens pushed their budget proposals through - and the same could happen this time round.

The Lib Dems claim to have identified £4m of savings with no cuts to services and £575,000 in new spending proposals.

However, no additional money has been included for weekly refuse collections.

Mr Goddard's group does not want to run the council if it means implementing other groups' spending plans and will spend today trying to thrash out a deal with one or more opposition groups.

The other possibility is a "traffic light coalition" - a mixture of each group's budget proposals with each having a seat at the executive.

The idea behind that is to present a united front with the authority's unitary status bid in mind, the result of which is decided in March.