Brown's approach 'better for NI'

Mark Durkan has urged the prime minister to listen to his critics

Chancellor Gordon Brown would have been better than Tony Blair at managing NI's difficulties since the Good Friday Agreement, Mark Durkan has said.

The SDLP leader was speaking ahead of an address to his party's 35th annual conference in Belfast on Saturday.

He said Mr Blair's contribution had been vital in securing the Agreement.

However, he believed Mr Brown would probably have proved "less tolerant" of "disruptive tactics" by the local political parties.

Mr Durkan told the BBC's Inside Politics programme on Saturday: "I believe Gordon Brown would have been better at managing things after the Agreement.

"I don't think we could have got the Agreement without Tony Blair.

"My own belief would have been things would have been managed stronger and more clearly if it had have been the Brown approach that had been followed."

The SDLP conference got under way at a Belfast hotel on Friday night and will continue until Sunday.

The vice-chairman of the Policing Board, Denis Bradley, will address the conference on Saturday.

Baroness May Blood, who has been involved in community work for 40 years, addressed the conference on Friday night on the theme 'Across the Divide'.