Blair and Ahern confident despite latest peace hiccup

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern appeared at a Downing Street press conference yesterday, and confidently predicted that the latest hiccup in the Northern Ireland peace process could be overcome.

With deadlock emerging over the blueprint document proposed as the way forward, the British and Irish governments demanded clarity from the IRA over how and when it would disarm.

As it stands, a draft statement sent by the IRA to the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell on Wednesday was rejected as not going far enough. At yesterday's press conference, Mr Blair issued a stern warning that there must be clarity – so as to inspire confidence in the process.

The Prime Minister said: "We have to make sure that there is total clarity and certainty always around in respect of the acts of completion for the Good Friday Agreement… The stakes that we are playing for are very big because it is a real chance to make this thing work for the future, but there has to be certainty and there has to be clarity, and there can't be ambiguity, and that is what we set out last October, that has been the case all the way through, it remains the case now."

Following talks with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, the Prime Minister said that people must understand that time is urgent, and "even at this late stage, any of the difficulties can be ironed out and dealt with".

On the prospects of progress, the Taoiseach said: "I would hope that we could sort it out overnight. We are talking about very narrow points, to be frank with you. I do not see the difficulty myself.

"So I don't want to see any delay, the election date is fixed, but I am not talking about even that kind of a delay, I think we should be able to sort this out."

Negotiations are ongoing and republican leaders met with the US President's special adviser on Northern Ireland Richard Haass today.

Though the statement issued by Sinn Fein prior to the talks with Mr Haass saying that their role was effectively over, appeared to be less than inspiring to the sucessful outcome of the current negotiations.

(GMcG)