Madrid, Spain

With the trials of Catalonian separatist leaders possibly weeks away, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez refused to say whether he would pardon them, calling the idea "a hypothesis."

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"What I would say to you is that the government doesn't make statements about hypotheses, it makes statements about realities," Sanchez said, as he spoke to reporters in Montreal, Canada, alongside a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Nine separatist Catalonian leaders are accused of crimes including rebellion for their role in last year's banned referendum and a subsequent failed declaration of independence.

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The trial could begin as early as October, raising tensions as Sanchez seeks to reach a compromise with the Catalan government.

Sanchez has adopted a softer tone than his predecessor, conservative Mariano Rajoy, and offered to hold a wide-ranging dialogue that could lead to drafting a new statute of autonomy that Catalans would have the opportunity to adopt or reject by referendum.

"I think that the path of justice has its route. The responsibility of the Spanish government is to respond to a political crisis through politics. We know - and I've said it from the first moment that I became president-- that it won't be tomorrow or the day after when we resolve this political crisis but I think we're on the path to achieve it," he said.

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Catalonia's new leader, Quim Torra, has dismissed the idea that this could be a way forward and instead called on Sanchez to accept a legally-binding referendum on independence.

Because Sanchez needs Torra's party votes in the national parliament to pass the annual budget bill, a failure to find common ground in Catalonia would likely spill over to national politics in Madrid - and possibly trigger a snap national election sometimes in early 2019.

According to a survey released in July 46.7 per cent of Catalans want their region to become an independent state, while 44.9 per cent oppose this solution-- a number that has remained roughly stable over the past four years.

Catalonia also elected a new regional parliament this year in which separatist forces retained a majority of seats. The trials of jailed separatist leaders should keep the Catalan question at the top of the political agenda for the time being.