Leaders to meet over impasse

David Trimble and Gerry Adams are expected to hold talks

Increased efforts to broker a deal to revive the Northern Ireland Assembly are to continue with talks between the leaders of Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams led a Sinn Fein delegation to meet Secretary of State Paul Murphy at Hillsborough Castle on Monday.

It was part of the effort to try to broker a deal which could set the context for elections and the formation of a new power-sharing executive.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has just returned from a visit to Israel where he addressed an international conference on the theme of leadership in a time of change.

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

Meetings

Mr Trimble is also due to continue his discussion with the Ulster Unionists' officers about party divisions over the recent British Irish joint declaration.

Speaking ahead of Mr Trimble's meeting with Sinn Fein, former UUP Assembly member Dermot Nesbitt said republicans needed to convince unionists of a permanent end to violence.

"This is about an issue that goes to the very heart of democratic values, the protection of democracy against the threat of violence," he told a political conference at Stormont on Tuesday.

While Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists try to inch towards a deal, all the other parties are increasingly on an election footing.

Democratic Unionist supporters gathered in Newtownards, County Down, on Monday for the latest in a series of public meetings.

Deputy leader Peter Robinson described the current negotiations as "an attempt to rehash the same old tired formula" and derided any likely gesture from the IRA as "a stunt".

Earlier on Monday, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said he believed fresh Assembly elections were imminent.

He said elections were going to happen in the near future and could not be avoided.