What the papers say

Journalist Keith Baker takes a look at what is making the headlines in Monday's morning papers.

The Irish Times carries a big article written by Peter Robinson, giving rise to the front page headline: "DUP says it's willing to work with Sinn Fein on policing."

Mr Robinson tells readers that the transfer of justice and policing powers is no big move for unionists but it cannot be agreed without regard to the circumstances on the ground.

He says the DUP requires the certainty that Sinn Fein is employing exclusively peaceful and democratic means.

As Mr Robinson sees it, republicans must finally decide whether they are prepared to "abandon the machinery of death" and rely on their electoral mandate alone.

'Ludicrous idea'

Meanwhile, the Mirror says the IRA are going to invite members of the DUP to witness the destruction of arms and explosives.

It says two DUP representatives and two republicans will be asked to accompany General de Chastelain in overseeing a significant act of decommissioning, which will happen, the Mirror believes, before next month's talks at Leeds Castle in Kent.

The News Letter says unionists are angry at suggestions that the Irish Guards might cease to exist, becoming absorbed instead into a new Foot Guards regiment.

Both Jeffrey Donaldson and David Burnside say the idea is ludicrous and they insist that history cannot be thrown away simply to save money.

The Irish News goes back to 1969 for its main story, claiming that the Dublin Government considered an Irish Army invasion of Northern Ireland after the battle of the Bogside and fierce fighting in Belfast.

The paper has managed to get its hands on an official Dublin Government report from that year.

The document's objective was to report on the feasibility of the Defence Forces undertaking military combat or support operations in Northern Ireland.

But as the Irish News points out, it never reached the implementation stage.

The News Letter is pleased that the Apprentice Boys parades went off peacefully at the weekend.

It says those involved emerged with their dignity intact - although perhaps a little footsore - and says they can be proud to be peaceful and Protestant.

In the cross-channel papers, there is an air of gloom over the lack of British success at the Olympics so far.

The Guardian has a front page cartoon showing two Greek bandsmen wondering: "Is it worth learning the British national anthem?"

The Times says the search for gold will continue on Monday although it reckons it will be a considerable surprise if any Briton locates it.

The Daily Telegraph carries a picture of endless rows of empty seats at one event on Saturday.

Three days on, it says, officials in Athens are under pressure to paper the city with free tickets to solve the growing crisis of low turnout.

'Remote doctors'

Elsewhere, the Express claims there has been a plot to kill Tony Blair.

It says asylum-seekers with high-tech equipment and maps were caught half a mile from his constituency home.

The Mail comes up with a crisis in the NHS and says nine out of ten dentists are refusing to take new patients.

This, it says, despite the government pledge that everyone should have access to a dentist when they need one.

And a survey in the Daily Telegraph claims that doctors are becoming more remote from their patients. The Doctor Finlay school of medicine, it says, is almost extinct.

The Guardian has the story of the policeman who fell when trying to close a window in St James's Palace and tore a hole in one of the Queen's paintings.

The headline calls him a "tumbling constable".

And the Express has a picture of an oak tree which has been uprooted and planted upside down in a park in Bristol.

Not the act of vandals, but the work of a sculptor who got £30,000 for her trouble.

She says she was asked to make the area look better and she does not think it is a waste of money.