Unionists discuss security with Blair

The DUP raised security concerns with Blair

A delegation from the Democratic Unionist Party has had an hour-long meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London to discuss the security situation in Northern Ireland.

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

Speaking afterwards, DUP leader Ian Paisley said he told Mr Blair that violence had increased in Northern Ireland since the signing of the Agreement in 1998.

"The government has been selling the lie that we have peace as a result of the Agreement, but that is not so when we come to the figures issued by the police," he said.

Tony Blair: Made a statement on paramilitary ceasefires to parliament

The DUP leader said he showed figures to Mr Blair that demonstrated that between 1995 and 1998 there were 450 shootings in the province, but between 1999 and 2002 the figure had grown to 820.

"The prime minister said he would have to take these figures away and look carefully at them because this was a serious matter."

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid, who also attended the meeting, said the figures did not provide the full picture.

"Dr Paisley raised some figures out of police reports that had come out over the past three years.

"For the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland, life has got better," he said

"But there are areas, in the localities and some of the areas of Belfast, where things have got much worse, and overall there are some worrying signs, particularly in terms of sectarian attacks and bombings and so on."

Shootings

Dr Reid said he shared the DUP's concern over the violence.

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.

A Protestant Glenbryn teenager narrowly escaped with his life, when a republican gunman, believed to be from the INLA, shot him the same evening.

There have also been serious street confrontations with the police 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 IRA in the recent break-in at Castlereagh security complex and their alleged training of FARC guerillas in Columbia.

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