Progress made on Northern Ireland power sharing

Saturday, 20 November 2004 12:00 AM

Progress is being made on rekindling power sharing at Stormont in Northern Ireland, leading figures have confirmed.

Political parties met with leaders in London and Dublin on Wednesday to explore fresh plans to break the two-year political impasse.

It is believed Catholic and Protestant churchmen will be allowed to witness any future acts of "visible" weapons decommissioning by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Verifiable weapons decommissioning is the main bone of contention among unionists and deemed central to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Sentiment emerging since the talks is that while the situation hangs precariously in the balance, several key differences on weapons decommissioning between Dr Reverend Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party - the largest unionist party in the province - and Sinn Fein have been ironed out, making way for the possible resumption of devolved government in the province.

On Friday, after Dr Paisley informed the DUP Assembly team of the new Anglo-Irish proposals, party chairman Maurice Morrow said MLAs believed talks had advanced.

The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA said there had been "a unanimous positive reaction" to Dr Paisley's report.

"The Assembly Group welcomed and commended the efforts of the party's senior negotiators to date and offered its continued support. Members recognise that significant progress has been made in the days and weeks since Leeds Castle and that there is still work required," he said.

Mr Morrow said the DUP would provide the Government with a detailed analysis of any "outstanding issues".

In west Belfast, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams notified party colleagues on the state of the negotiations and urged the DUP to talk directly to them about Dublin and London's joint proposals.

But Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Fein's national chairperson, said his party would not countenance any deal outside the "fundamentals" of the 1998 accord.

Irish Foreign Minister, Dermot Ahern, said a tentative consensus was emerging between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Separately, a former MP of David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party has described the UUP as increasingly irrelevant to the political process in the province.

Jeffrey Donaldson MP, now of the DUP, said "very significant progress" was being made towards a lasting political settlement without the interventions from the UUP.

"Whilst the Ulster Unionist leadership has gone back on its word in the past, the DUP will honour our commitments.

"Indeed by its comments in recent days, all the UUP has done is to signal and highlight its irrelevance to the political process.

"There is only a creeping realisation and recognition that we could be on the verge of an historic breakthrough - far in advance of anything achieved by David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party."

Mr Blair said power sharing at Stormont was premised on an end to paramilitary violence "once and for all" and "in all its forms".

Such a premise would leave the unionists with "no reason" to refuse to share power with republicans, he said.

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