'Bold thinking and bold acting' required in North - Haass

Bold thinking and bold acting is required by all sides involved in the peace process because "the days of small steps is over", Mr Richard Haass, President George Bush's special adviser on Northern Ireland said in Dublin today.

Speaking after a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, Mr Haass said he was encouraged that steps that will fundamentally change the character of the dispute in the North was now on the agenda.

"Central to this is the end of all paramilitary capabilities and paramilitary behaviour. That is the sort of bold step that needs to be contemplated.

"The British government obviously needs to contemplate what sort of bold steps it is willing to take in area of normalisation and demilitarisation of its presence," he said.

Mr Cowen said "acts of completion" were necessary to see the restoration of power-sharing institutions in preparations for Assembly elections in May.

Mr Haass called on unionists to be prepared to recognise steps of this magnitude and respond to them if they were forthcoming.

Asked whether nationalists were "thinking big", Mr Haass said republicans were well aware of the current "political context".

However, Mr Haass cautioned that while steps on the scale just described were needed, he was not certain "whether people will actually ultimately put forward bold initiatives and carry them out."

What is not in doubt is the ongoing commitment of the US government to the peace process. Mr Haass said that if personal intervention by the Secretary of State Mr Powell or President George Bush were required to progress the process, it would be forthcoming.