NICOLA Sturgeon has refused to rule out a second Scottish independence referendum in 2018 as latest poll shows 50/50 spilt for independence.
Pressed on the timing of a possible second referendum while on BBC Two's Brexit: Britain's Biggest Deal, the First Minister said she was "not ruling anything out".
Speaking on the programme, she said she was not "bluffing" about holding another referendum and warned politicians in Westminster that Brexit is not "some kind of game".
When asked about autumn 2018 being a likely date, she said: "Within that window. I guess when the sort of outline of a UK deal becomes clear on the UK exiting the EU, I think would be the common sense time for Scotland to have that choice, if that is the road we choose to go down.
"I'm not ruling anything out."
Sturgeon raised the prospect of another referendum after Scotland voted to stay in the European Union but the UK as a whole voted to leave.
While the UK narrowly voted to leave the EU, almost two-thirds of Scots who took part in the ballot wanted to remain part of the bloc which the First Minister insists gives her a "cast-iron mandate" to call IndyRef2.
Writing in The Times newspaper last week, Ms Sturgeon said she had chosen to hold off exercising her mandate immediately to explore other options to protects Scotland's place in Europe.
Meanwhile a new poll has shown Scots are now split 50/50 on the issue of independence.
Among those who expressed an opinion and who were certain to take part in a second independence referendum was held, half said they would vote to keep the Union together while half would vote for Scotland to leave the UK.
When those who were not certain if they would vote were included, the research - by Ipsos MORI for STV News - showed a slim majority for staying in the United Kingdom, with voters split 51% to 49%.
It comes as Theresa May prepares to trigger Article 50 this month, formally beginning the UK's process of leaving the European Union.
The latest poll found 52% of those questioned believe Ms Sturgeon is doing a "good job representing Scotland's interests in the process of the UK leaving the EU", with 29% strongly agreeing and 23% tending to agree.
Only 24% said Prime Minister Theresa May is doing a "good job representing Scotland's interests" in the Brexit process, with a third stating the Tory leader is doing well representing the UK.
A total of 1,029 Scots aged 16 and above took part in the survey, with the research being carried out between February 24 and March 6.
More than half of those questioned (52%) backed the idea of a second referendum being held across the UK when the Brexit deal is completed - with 36% strongly agreeing this should be the case and 16% tending to agree.
In contrast, 26% strongly disagree with the idea of a second Brexit referendum while 14% tend to agree, with 6% who neither agreed nor disagreed and 2% who said they did not know.
Looking at support for independence on a scale of 1 to 10, 28% said they "completely support Scotland becoming independent" while 38% said they "completely support Scotland staying part of the UK".
If Scotland does become independent, almost half (48%) said it should be a full member of the EU while a further 27% were in favour of the country having full access to the single market without being a member of the EU.
Less than a fifth (17%) said an independent Scotland should not be in either the EU or have access to the single market while 8% either did not know or refused to answer.
Mark Diffley, Ipsos MORI Scotland director said: "In the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum vote last June there was an increase in support for independence, which ebbed away later in the year.
"This poll suggests some modest movement back towards independence since we last measured opinion six months ago.
"It will certainly provide the SNP with a lift ahead of their spring conference in Aberdeen next week."
Meanwhile, among those who are certain to vote in May's Scottish council elections, 46% said they would back the SNP, with the Conservatives coming in second place with 19% support, ahead of Labour on 17%, the Greens on 8% and the Liberal Democrats on 6%. Ukip, the pro-Brexit party, polled 3%.
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