Many of the day's newspapers focus on the growing unease gripping the Northern Ireland peace process, with editorials seeing little hope that Peter Mandelson's attempt to increase pressure on the IRA to start disarming next week will bear fruit.

The Times says that not only has no date been set for the paramilitaries to surrender their weapons, but also there has been no progress made as to how they should go about it. The Daily Telegraph reports that the Northern Ireland crisis had "deepened" with little prospect of the IRA meeting government deadlines.

More doom and gloom for the government comes again courtesty of the Daily Telegraph - this time in an interview with former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle. Making unhappy reading for the Labour leadership, it links the piece to the Ceredigion by-election in Wales.

Mr Kilfoyle's warning against New Labour's obsession with style might be directed at the picture of Tony Blair featured in The Times.

Describing the Prime Minister as Towny Tony, it contrasts his immaculate suit and black brogues during his tour of farms in the West Country, with Cornish farmer John Linfoot - wearing Wellington boots and an old parka jacket.

Suffering farmers

The Times says Mr Blair resisted the temptation to don a tweed jacket and corduroys to show solidarity with suffering farmers.

The Prime Minister preferred instead to spend his time talking to farmers - what his spokesman called "downspinning", a new phrase which is certain to raise Mr Kilfoyle's eyebrows after his attack on "tribes of spin doctors employed by the government".

But The Express in its editorial says Mr Blair's crusade in the West Country to woo rural voters will do little to address the mood in Wales. It says Labour's fourth place in Ceredigion reflects widespread dissatisfaction over the government's treatment of the farmers.

The government looks set to court further controversy, according to the Financial Times, with plans to introduce performance related pay into the NHS. Staff would not only get pay rises, but would be rewarded with new equipment or refurbishments.

The FT says the idea is being put forward by Health Secretary Alan Milburn who wants to encourage staff to adopt to better ways of providing care and improving quality, such as reducing waiting times

Bloody retreat

The bloody retreat of Chechen fighters from their capital Grozny is reported in the Times, which repeats Russian claims of how they caught up to 1,000 Chechens in a "brilliant" trap.

They had apparently been lured into the path of waiting Russian troops by a double agent who claimed to know a safe way out of the city.

The Guardian carries the tale of one tearful Chechen survivor who described how he escaped from a Russian minefield by walking on the bodies of his friends.

The Independent says the Millennium Dome's failure to draw big crowds since its opening at New Year has led to fears within the government and the Millennium Commission - which distributes Lottery grants - that the landmark faces a serious crisis.

The Daily Mail, under the headline We can't keep bailing you out, says the organisers have been told to sharpen their act or face a ban on further handouts.

But all hope is not lost according to The Guardian which quotes a spokesman who compares the Dome to a supertanker revving up, and predicts numbers will pick up during spring and summer, with what he calls a "very strong drive in the last quarter".