'More urgency' needed in review

Seamus Close want more sense of purpose in the talks

The government has been criticised for "a lack of urgency" in its handling of the review of the Good Friday Agreement.

Parties elected in last November's assembly election began their first working sessions of the review on Monday and Tuesday, but are due to take a five-day break beginning next week.

Seamus Close of the Alliance Party said he wanted the government to establish a clear direction for the talks.

"I am very concerned at the lack of urgency and sense of purpose," he said.

"There seems to be a sense of hanging around, meeting up every now and then but with no real structure."

The political institutions in Northern Ireland were suspended in October 2002 amid allegations of IRA intelligence-gathering in the Stormont government.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair was in "listening mode" in talks at Downing Street, Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine has said.

Speaking on Tuesday after a delegation of Progressive Unionists met Mr Blair, Mr Ervine said there seemed to be "potential for the future to look brighter".

David Ervine said the prime minister was in listening mode

The PUP is linked to the loyalist paramilitary group, Ulster Volunteer Force,

Mr Ervine said he felt that the DUP's proposals for restoring devolution were "not unreasonable" claiming his own party had presented similar proposals in 1990s.

On Friday, the DUP said the assembly could get up and running in the short term, before the outstanding questions of IRA arms and paramilitary activity were resolved.

However, Ian Paisley's party repeated its insistence that there could be no place for republicans in a power-sharing executive until the IRA went out of business.

UK Unionist Robert McCartney has also been holding separate talks with Mr Blair.

Speaking after Tuesday's talks, he said he found Mr Blair to have been "very receptive".

The parties differ about what form the review - expected to run until Easter - should take, with the DUP saying it will not negotiate with Sinn Fein.

The SDLP and Sinn Fein say the Agreement cannot be renegotiated and that the review should be short.

When the 1998 Agreement was signed it contained a commitment that a conference should be held four years later to review and report on its operation.

But Stormont has been suspended four times and replaced with direct rule for the past 14 months.