Urgency creeps into Northern Ireland peace process

A renewed sense of urgency evident on Thursday night as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister Tony Blair met in Dublin to discuss the Northern Ireland peace process.

The two premiers pledged to take personal charge of a bid to break the deadlock following the return of the politicians from St Patrick's Day celebrations in Washington next week. Although the format of the talks has yet to be announced, the most likely form is a conference chaired by the prime ministers.

The meeting of the premiers, overshadowed by the Madrid bomb outrage, came as Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams claimed that the republican party may be excluded from the peace process. Mr Ahern said the exact opposite was the case and that the only lasting resolution to the peace process problems would be a result of inclusive talks.

Both premiers welcomed as positive the agreement by the International Monitoring Commission to bring forward the publishing date of a report on paramilitary activity to May.

Mr Ahern said that there was no intention to let the peace process "drift" and announced a determination to deal with the current problems by the third week of March.

Mr Blair said that all Northern Ireland politicians knew exactly what was required.

"Everybody is saying in this process there should be an end to violence of all descriptions and that no party should be in government unless they are committed to exclusively to democratic and peaceful means".

He said that given an end to paramilitarism then a democratic political mandate would ensure republicans a place in government.

(SP)