Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday told the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that she intends to honour her mandate to hold an independence referendum "with or without the UK Government's agreement".
She also said that, despite "deep political disagreements", she hoped to work closely with the PM and to enjoy a good relationship.
Speaking at the 38th British-Irish Council summit in Blackpool, Ms Sturgeon said relations between Edinburgh and London could improve if there was a significant change in attitude from the UK Government.
The Times says that, last month, it emerged that ex-PM Liz Truss had failed to make contact with the first minister during her six-week spell in No.10.
During the leadership campaign, Ms Truss had described Ms Sturgeon as an "attention seeker" who was best ignored.
Mr Sunak has previously said he could not "imagine the circumstances" in which he would agree to a new vote on independence.
Constructive meeting
Ms Sturgeon said: "It was a cordial and constructive meeting. I think both of us want to try as hard as we can to build a good, constructive working relationship.
"We've got deep political disagreements. I think we can all take that as read. But we've also got an obligation to work together in the interests of the people we serve. So I'm certainly keen to build that kind of relationship. He says he is too, so hopefully we'll see that translate from rhetoric into reality."
Asked about the possibility of a second referendum, the first minister said: "I of course raised that and made clear that I have an electoral mandate to offer the people in Scotland a choice in our future.
"He has said a lot I agree with, as it happens, about the importance of electoral mandates in his own context, but I also said I intend to honour that mandate, with or without the UK Government's agreement, albeit entirely constitutionally and legally.
"But the right thing to do would be for the two governments to sit down and agree a process that lets the Scottish people decide and so I made it clear to him if he's willing to do that, then I will have that discussion with him."
The first minister has called on Mr Sunak to send more money to Holyrood amid the "extreme pressure being faced by public services like the NHS".
She said: "The Scottish Government, and I think this can be demonstrated in the deals we have agreed...this year and the pay offers we've made, we are doing everything we can to maximise the pay increases we can give to public sector workers, but we operate within effectively a fixed budget. So there is a hard limit without additional resources from Westminster in what we can do."