End 'love affair with the gun' republicans told

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble has urged republicans to end their "love affair with the gun" following on from his meetings with the Prime Minister in Downing Street yesterday.

During yesterday's talks, Mr Trimble told the prime minister that there was "little point" in continuing with talks at Stormont if the republican movement fail to move on "acts of completion".

And afterwards, Mr Trimble said: "The Ulster Unionist Party, indeed, all the people of Northern Ireland, want to know that the republican movement have put up the shutters, have gone out of business, have ended their love affair with the gun."

Mr Trimble also urged the prime minister to bring forward a range of sanctions, including exclusion, should republicans fail to move towards "acts of completion".

At a lobby briefing yesterday, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson said that the meetings were "entirely routine".

He said the talks were a listening exercise so that government "could hear where the three parties concerned thought we were on the Northern Ireland issue".

The Prime Minister's approach, said his spokesperson, continued to be guided by what Mr Blair had said in his speech in Belfast – a speech which referred to "acts of completion" from the various political groups.

When asked if there would be any significant breakthrough arising from the talks, the spokesperson said "no".

Last night, the SDLP's Mark Durkan called for "all-in talks agreeing an all-out effort to implement all of the agreement".

He criticised the UUP leader, and his former ministerial colleague, for not attending last week's inter-governmental talks reviewing the progress of the Good Friday Agreement. He also all described as "fantasy" Mr Trimble's view that "the only issue is IRA activity".

Mr Durkan added: "There is only one way out of the current crisis. The SDLP wants the governments and all of the parties to deal with all of the confidence issues and agree an implementation compact setting timescales for the implementation of all of the agreement for all of the people.

"That way when we come back from crisis there will be no more breakdowns waiting to happen… no more pending excuses for walk-outs or stand-offs."

Prime Minister Tony Blair also met Alliance Party leader David Ford and the PUP's David Ervine in separate meetings during the course of the day.

(GMcG)