Unionists discuss security with Blair

DUP leader Ian Paisley will lead the delegation

By Martina Purdy BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent

A delegation from the Democratic Unionist Party is meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair in London to discuss the security situation in Northern Ireland.

Tuesday's meeting at Downing Street follows last week's statement by Mr Blair on the state of paramilitary ceasefires and on the future direction of the political process.

DUP leader Ian Paisley is leading his party in the talks which are also expected to seek clarification on a number of issues, including the possibility of a border poll next year.

Tony Blair's relations with the DUP have been prickly during the years of the peace process, but the DUP says it is aiming for a businesslike meeting.

"We are looking for clarification," said a DUP spokesman. "We want a cordial meeting."

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The party last met the prime minister, who met the pro-Agreement parties last month, in the Spring.

The meeting will give the DUP the chance to put its concerns directly to the prime minister.

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The meeting comes at a tense time in Northern Ireland.

The loyalist parmilitary Ulster Freedom Fighters last week shot dead a north Belfast teenager, Gerard Lawlor, in a night that could have seen several others lose their lives.

Indeed, a Protestant Glenbryn youth, Mark Blaney, narrowly escaped with his life, when a republican gunman, believed to be from the INLA, shot him the same evening.

Dissatisfaction

There have also been serious street confrontations with the police and rioters in a number of areas in Belfast, and there is widespread concern about the security situation.

Dissident republicans also remain active, and there are question marks over the alleged role of the Provisional IRA in the recent break-in at Castlereagh security complex and their alleged training of Farc guerillas in Columbia.

Aside from Ian Paisley, the DUP delegation will include Gregory Campbell, MP for East Londonderry, and assembly members Ian Paisley Jnr, and Maurice Morrow.

Unionists have expressed dissatisfaction with the prime minister's Commons statement, claiming the government has merely repeated past promises that were not kept.

The DUP is a party on the rise - and one that has refused to embrace the political process.

As much as he might like to, Mr Blair cannot afford to ignore Mr Paisley's party which is aiming to displace the Ulster Unionists as the premier voice of unionism.