Ahern, Blair insist on 'clarity' in peace process

The Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister have insisted this evening that there must be "complete clarity and confidence" for the Northern Ireland peace process to progress.

Speaking after crisis talks in Downing Street this evening, Mr Bertie Ahern and Mr Tony Blair said there must be no ambiguity that "acts of completion" have been fulfilled.

This will be seen as a direct call on the IRA to declare that its war was over and its weapons will be verifiably put beyond use.

"We need certainty, clarity, trust and confidence in order to move forward," Mr Ahern said tonight.

He insisted he was confident that they could be in a position to unveil the Anglo-Irish blueprint for the restoration of devolution in Hillsborough Castle tomorrow.

Mr Ahern and Mr Blair were originally scheduled to travel Hillsborough Castle today, but their visits were cancelled when an impasse in talks with pro-Agreement parties developed. Today is the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement on Good Friday, 1998.

"I would hope we can sort it out overnight," the Taoiseach said, adding that all six pro-Agreement parties would be contacted tonight.

"We are only talking about one or two...of the 300 or 400 points" detailed in the Belfast Agreement, he insisted.

Mr Blair acknowledged there were a "number of outstanding issues" to be addressed in what was a "very frustrating" process.

"The two governments are in complete agreement," he said. "We have to be sure there is total clarity and confidence in respect ofthe outworkings of the Good Friday Agreement.

"We have got to make sure that people understand the time is urgent and Ihope even at this late stage any of the difficulties can be ironed out and dealtwith."

A Government statement said the today's planned meetings were called off as "sufficient progress" had not been made in talks with the pro-Agreement parties.

The US Presidential Envoy, Mr Richard Haas, was reported to be on his way to Belfast from Washington in anticipation of renewed talks in Hillsborough tomorrow.

The head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, General John de Chastelain was in Belfast today on standby for any deal.

However the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, insisted earlier today the main stumbling block was not the fact that an IRA declaration was not forthcoming, but the commitment of Mr David Trimble's Ulster Unionists to Northern Ireland's power sharing institutions.

"The failure of the two governments to publish the documents is a mistake and the erroneous spinning and briefing about who is to blame is also a miscalculation," he said. "It is ironic that five years to the day that the Good Friday Agreement was put together we are still trying to get the two governments to implement what they committed themselves to."

"In effect what has happened is that republicans have saidthey are not prepared to complete the transition to peacefulmeans," Mr Trimble toldBBC radio this afternoon.