Parties 'must work' for devolution

Paul Murphy and Brian Cowen held talks

Northern Ireland's political parties must prove they have the "political will" to restore devolution, the British and Irish Governments have said.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen said it was up to the parties to prove they were willing to take the steps needed for stable devolved government.

They were speaking on Thursday after Sinn Fein called on the British Government to establish a date for elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Northern Ireland's devolved administration was suspended last October amid allegations of IRA intelligence gathering in the Stormont government.

No date has been set for fresh assembly elections which were postponed in May over what the British Government called a "lack of clarity" about the IRA's future intentions.

Mr Cowen said: "There must be sufficient political will to satisfy the vast majority of the people on the island of Ireland that paramilitarism has come to an end, that it will stay ended and people are committed to exclusively peaceful means.

"If it is the case that there are commitments to that effect and efforts to persuade others to that effect it will ensure that we don't have a stop-start executive.

"There is a responsibility on all political leaderships to make the necessary contribution which they can make."

'Building trust'

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said it was essential that people in the province had the promise of a stable government.

He said: "The reason why the assembly was suspended in the first place has not gone away and we have to deal with all of those difficult issues too.

"There is not an awful lot of point in the long run if you have an assembly election and that (the assembly) again has to be suspended for how many weeks or months?

"I don't think that that is going to happen. I think that people in Northern Ireland, the political parties actually understand how important it is to build the trust between each other so that they can establish devolved government."

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern had a "useful catchup" at Chequers

Earlier, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the British Government should set an election date and go ahead with the poll regardless of whether political progress was achieved.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said a "limited window of opportunity" existed to resolve the impasse in the political process.

Mr Adams said the onus was on the British Government to call elections to the assembly as soon as possible.

He was speaking after talks with Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble on Thursday, as part of a series of meetings between key players in the political process.

He added: "It is very obvious there is a window of opportunity here that is quite limited. I think the onus is very much on the British Government to call elections quickly."

Policing powers

Republicans, he added, needed assurances that unionists would sustain devolution when it returned and would not walk away "as they had in the past".

Transferring power over policing back to the Stormont Assembly was "fundamental" to working out the disputes over the policing issue, he said.

His Sinn Fein colleague Martin McGuinness stressed the importance of holding elections soon.

He said: "I think it will be politically disastrous for elections not to take place this year and it would be an enormous setback to the work we have all been engaged in over the course of the last few years."

At the weekend, the British and Irish prime ministers held what were described as "useful" talks about the political process.

Bertie Ahern said elections could only be held if there was a credible chance of an executive being formed afterwards.