Party's prepare for castle talks

Mark Devenport BBC NI political editor

The staff at Hillsborough Castle are going to be busy over the next fortnight or so.

The Northern Ireland secretary's residence is set to be the venue for a meeting of pro-Agreement parties on 26 June, to be chaired by John Reid and the Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen.

No sooner will Dr Reid have bade farewell to his house guests than they will be back, this time in early July, for a similar gathering, but this time in the company of Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern.

The idea is that these meetings will attempt to address the current lack of confidence in the peace process which appears to be contributing to the tensions on Belfast's streets.

John Reid: To host talks at Hillsborough

The government is also hoping it can find some way to translate into action its rhetoric about there being no halfway house between terrorism and democracy.

The omens, however, are not good.

David Trimble's notion that the Good Friday Agreement should be amended to make the exclusion of paramilitary linked parties from government more feasible is unlikely to cut much ice with Sinn Fein, the SDLP or the Irish Government.

Much as Tony Blair wants to bolster Mr Trimble's position he will be wary of taking any unilateral initiative which might stir resentment within the nationalist camp.

Despite Mr Trimble's latest victory over Jeffrey Donaldson and the other sceptics at his party's executive, the Ulster Unionists appear in no mood for holding out olive branches to the republicans and nationalists.

Instead, their tone is getting more shrill as they ponder their prospects in next year's assembly elections.

In short, Mr Blair and Mr Ahern will have to arrive at Hillsborough with a pair of rabbits already stuffed inside their hats if they are going to make much progress.

Much of the unionist script for the Hillsborough meetings - regarding alleged IRA activity at home and abroad - has been written several weeks in advance.

Finucane investigation

But nationalists were handed a lot of extra material at the last minute courtesy of the BBC Panorama programme's investigation of security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.

Of course the allegations in Panorama, regarding the role of army intelligence and individual police officers in picking targets for loyalist killers, should be of concern across the political spectrum.

Tony Blair: Any rabbits in his hat?

However, most of the areas touched on - the role of Special Branch, the demand for public inquiries, the case for further reforms in policing and justice - are more in tune with both Sinn Fein and the SDLP's agendas than those of the unionists.

After the Panorama programme, the family of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane renewed their demand for a judicial inquiry into his murder.

They see the present process, under which the retired Canadian judge, Peter Cory, is reviewing Mr Finucane's murder, as little more than a delaying tactic by the government.

Judge Cory is examining the murder alongside five other instances of alleged collusion.

But it is understood he will deal with the Finucane case first and no seasoned observer expects the judge not to be persuaded by the prima facia argument for an inquiry.

So first Bloody Sunday, then Finucane. It appears that peace process Northern Ireland could soon spawn almost as many inquiries as the Irish Republic has created corruption tribunals.

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