CRISIS TALKS ON NI MOVE TO ENGLAND

BILATERAL talks involving the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland’s pro-Agreement parties will take place in Weston Park in Shropshire next week.

Talks originally were planned for Hillsborough Castle in County Down, but an alternative venue was announced on Thursday. Weston Park is about 30 minutes from Birmingham and was used three years ago for a G8 summit.

The announcement on the change of venue comes after the Northern Ireland Parades Commission decided to stick by their original judgement not allow Orangemen walk down the nationalist Garvaghy Road this Sunday July 8.

Government talks intensified over the past two weeks in the run up to First Minister David Trimble’s resignation from office on Sunday July 1. Both the British and Irish Government s remain determined to break the current impasse plaguing the Northern Ireland Executive and force a resolution on the issues of decommissioning, policing and demilitarisation.

On Thursday Secretary of State Dr John Reid and Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen held talks in Dublin. On Wednesday evening the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern held talks over dinner in 10 Downing Street.

Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure the UK Government has laid plans before parliament to hold a Northern Ireland Assembly election should the powersharing executive fail to elect a new first and deputy first minister before August 11.

There are less than six weeks left for the assembly must either re-install David Trimble as First Minister or replace him before the executive is dissolved under the legislation which made the Good Friday Agreement law.

(AMcE)