DUP steps up opposition to Belfast Agreement

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will take its campaign against the Belfast Agreement on the road again, it emerged today.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will take its campaign against the Belfast Agreement on the road again, it emerged today.

As parties in Northern Ireland speculated about a new push to restore devolution, a DUP spokesman confirmed the party was planning a series of public meetings highlighting flaws in the governments' peace process proposals.

The DUP spokesman said: "We are planning six meetings which will chart events since the Belfast Agreement.

"In particular, we will be focusing in on the many weaknesses in the joint declaration from Dublin and London and in the legislation for the new monitoring body.

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"The meetings will take place right across Northern Ireland."

It is understood the party will hold the first meeting of the series in Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble's Upper Bann constituency.

The meeting is scheduled to take place in Portadown on Friday next week. Other meetings will take place in Enniskillen, Coleraine, Lisburn, Newtownards and Carrickfergus.

The DUP's campaign follows Mr Trimble's victory over three rebel MPs at his party's ruling council meeting on Saturday. Ulster Unionists backed disciplinary action initiated by the leadership against Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, the Rev Martin Smyth and Mr David Burnside, who resigned the whip at Westminster in June after a row over the party's handling of the two governments' peace process proposals.

PA