PMs hope for NI progress

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern say talks will resume on Friday

The British and Irish prime ministers have said three days of intense talks on the Northern Ireland political process has given them fresh hope the issues can be resolved.

They were speaking after negotiations with the main pro-Agreement parties at Weston Park, Staffordshire, were suspended on Wednesday evening without a major breakthrough.

The talks will continue on Friday in Staffordshire and the smaller political parties have been invited.

The decision to send these parties home after the first day's negotiations on Monday had been questioned by Sinn Fein and the nationalist SDLP.

The political process has been stalled over the issues of IRA arms decommissioning, policing and British Army demilitarisation.

The nationalist SDLP has said that some progress had been made on the latter issues, but that more "clarity" was needed on the question of arms.

On Wednesday evening, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern said they were optimistic about the parties reaching agreement.

Mr Blair said he hoped all sides would use the next 24 hours to reflect on their positions adding it was a time for leadership.

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He said there were substantial areas of disagreement and difference.

"We are going to work with complete determination and some hope that we can find a way through, " he said.

"The one thing that stood out from all the discussions was that we had the acceptance by all the political parties that there is no alternative to the Good Friday Agreement that it is the best basis for peace and a stable future for the people of Northern Ireland."

Mr Ahern said the arguments were well known but the solutions were not so easy.

"We have worked hard to try to find those and hopefully we can," he said.

Seamus Mallon: More "clarity" needed on arms

Mr Blair missed his weekly appearance at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons to chair the talks in an attempt to find progress.

SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon said some progress had been made at the talks, but there was disappointment and anger that an agreement had not been reached.

Speaking as the SDLP delegation left the talks, Mr Mallon said there had been "advances" on the issues of policing and security normalisation, but not enough to satisfy his party.

He also said there was still a lack of clarity on the decommissioning issue.

Gerry Adams: Still hopeful

Leaving the talks, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said no progress had been made, but insisted that there was still hope for the peace process.

He said: "The big thing is that there is hope, even though it is maybe soiled and wounded. Ten years ago there was no hope."

The UUP delegation left the talks earlier to return to Northern Ireland for Thursday's traditional climax to the Protestant marching season.

Mr Trimble, who left the talks for other commitments less than 90 minutes after they had begun, said: "We have come here to see if it is possible in the course of this morning to make a little progress."

But he said that the current nature of the negotiations had left his party with a feeling of disappointment.

There had been a poor response from Sinn Fein and it had not been able to fulfill its promises, he said.

"They are in denial of the situation and the damage they could do to the process."