An announcement on new Assembly elections in Northern Ireland could be made in the next few weeks, British Prime Minister Tony Blair signalled today.
|
|
Mr Blair: not date fixed
|
With the power-sharing executive in Belfast suspended almost a year ago amid claims of an IRA spying operation inside Stormont, Downing Street postponed May's elections until the autumn. But no date has yet been fixed for the poll.
Senior civil servants in Dublin and London are due to have critical talks with all the parties in Belfast in the coming weeks, and Mr Blair claimed today there was a prospect of agreement.
The Stormont administration was put on hold after the Ulster Unionist Party threatened to walk out because of the spying allegations and the IRA's refusal to decommission all weapons and explosives.
With Northern Ireland free of any major summer sectarian violence for the first time in years, Mr Blair, speaking at a Number 10 press conference, said the process could not continue indefinitely without elections.
He said: "Obviously it is far better we have those elections against a background of agreement.
"I hope in the next couple of weeks I will able to be a little more definitive . . . I think there is a prospect of getting agreement. We have come very close but failed the last couple of times".
PA