Political talks continue on Assembly's future

In the latest meeting in a round of talks aimed at stemming the political crisis Northern Ireland Secretary of State Paul Murphy has met with the Democratic Unionist Party.

Mr Murphy, on appointment as Secretary of State, leapt straight in to a series of high-level talks with the leaders of the province's main political parties.

The Government views discussions as the way forward in the political quagmire that has developed since the revelations of alleged IRA spying activities within the Northern Ireland Office dragged down the assembly forcing suspension of the power-sharing institutions.

Talks will centre on a possible review of the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

For their part the DUP, while talking to the government, will be unlikely to sanction a review process or to undertake to stand by the outcome of a review.

The DUP leader, Dr Ian Paisley said that Northern Ireland was heading for a disaster and called for elections.

Mr Murphy is well versed in the political process and the basis of the Good Friday Agreement as he was the minister responsible for political development in 1998.

So far the Secretary of State has met with representatives from Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Alliance Party, UK Unionists and will meet with a number of other of the province's smaller political parties as he endeavours to find some common ground in the political landscape.

However, the water was further muddied when SDLP leader Mark Durkan said that the British Prime Minister had told him that there were grounds to exclude Sinn Féin from the power-sharing process. But Mr Durkan speaking on a Radio Ulster programme said that he would not back an exclusion motion.

This clearly implies that the government has, or is still, seriously considering an exclusion of Sinn Féin, probably on the grounds that the republican party has failed to uphold democratic principles.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowan is also expected to meet with Paul Murphy later this week. Mr Cowan has also been engaged with a series of meetings with some of the political parties as the two governments gauge responses and prepare a strategy following the suspension of the Northern Ireland assembly.

(SP)