Premiers urge political progress

Both premiers are hoping to kick-start the political process

Progress in the political process must be made as soon as possible, the Irish and British prime ministers have said.

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern said solutions in Northern Ireland would not be found overnight but "substantial progress" had been made.

Mr Blair said it would be better if problems were "resolved in the context of proper devolved institutions".

They confirmed that talks with Northern Ireland's political parties would resume on 6 February.

The talks in Dublin on Thursday were held on the eve of the latest Independent Monitoring Commission's report into paramilitary activity.

Mr Blair warned that "currents of instability" within Northern Ireland were threatening the future of the process.

Institutions

"However benign or placid things may appear, whilst that stalemate continues, actually underneath the surface, there are all the currents of instability present when there is not a true and forceful direction moving the process," he said.

"I don't think we should be under any illusion at all, neither about how difficult, but also how important it is, to get to the point where we can set out arrangements and a time-line for getting the institutions back up and running again".

Mr Ahern said it was not a time for complacency adding that the two governments "cannot afford a prolonged stalemate".

"Our shared objective is simple. We have to complete a transition to peace and to prosperity for all the citizens of Northern Ireland," he said.

"And we want to see the full restoration of the democratic institutions of the Good Friday Agreement and we believe that this is in the interests of everyone in Northern Ireland and throughout these islands."

SDLP leader Mark Durkan welcomed "the determination of the two governments" to make progress in 2006.

Speaking from Washington where he is engaged in a round of briefings and engagements, Mr Durkan said: "The best way of ensuring progress is to set a date for restoration now. That will concentrate the minds of parties."

Mitchell Reiss was upbeat about the talks

Earlier on Thursday US Special Envoy Mitchell Reiss was upbeat about the talks.

"You always have to be optimistic, but there may be more grounds at this time than in the recent past," he said.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to London, Robert Holmes, Tuttle has called for all political parties to support the police service.

Speaking at Belfast city hall Ambassador Tuttle said policing could be Northern Ireland's biggest success, but this required the support of the entire community.

Devolution

Earlier this month, police said the IRA was still engaged in criminal activity.

However, the government is hoping the IMC will back its assertion that the group is no longer involved in crime.

The DUP has also said it remains concerned about indications that republicans are still involved in criminality.

On Tuesday, party leader Ian Paisley presented Mr Blair with a 16-page document outlining their proposals for a return to devolution in Northern Ireland.

Although details of the document were not released, the paper is understood to propose a two-stage process under which the Stormont assembly might be revived, without a power-sharing executive.

However, Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams has insisted that the DUP should not be allowed to block political progress.

The Sinn Fein president has dismissed unionists' suggestions of lesser alternatives to the restoration of an executive and has said he wants power-sharing at Stormont within months.

Devolved government at Stormont was suspended in October 2002 following allegations of a republican spy ring at the Northern Ireland Office.

Last December, a prosecution against three people accused of involvement was scrapped.

Shortly afterwards, one of the three, senior Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson who had worked at Stormont, admitted that he had been a British agent for 20 years.