Stormont elections delayed following Hillsborough talks

Following the latest two-day talks to refloat the Good Friday Agreement, it has been announced that elections – originally scheduled for May 1 – have been delayed to allow time for the main players to find an agreed way forward.

At a joint British-Irish government press conference today, Prime Minister Tony Blair revealed that the elections would be pushed back to May 29. He said that although there are areas which are "still very difficult", he believed there had been a "shared understanding" on how to move forward.

While Mr Blair described the Hillsborough talks as "genuinely constructive", after almost 30 hours of negotiations issues such as sanctions and on-the-runs remain unresolved.

"There's obviously now going to need to be a time for people to discuss this with their colleagues and it's important that takes place," he said.

"Also, in addition to that, we, of course, have got the St Patrick's Day celebrations that will take place in America where many people are attending who've been engaged in those talks. For those reasons, and to give that time for reflection, we will put back the date of the elections to the 29th May."

Mr Blair was optimistic on the prospects of an agreement, saying he expected "positive endorsements on all elements".

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that a "substantial amount of progress" had been made.

He added: "I think we all want to see a durable and stable outcome with the institutions restored and an end to the instability of the last few years and that's why we've all put in so much effort over the last number of months, if not years. And we've had, in these days, a torrid discussion of the issues and much progress has been achieved, there is no doubt about that."

However, an outraged DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, told reporters that the unionist electorate would reject any deal which emerged from the Hillsborough talks.

"The entire unionist community are raging mad at what is happening and they'll show it at the election. The British government can churn out the spin doctors to lie like Lucifer – it will make no difference," he said.

The British and Irish government will publish the Hillsborough proposals next month.

(GMcG)