The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, has insisted that a new monitoring body for the Belfast Agreement and paramilitary ceasefires should provideenough confidence to revive the peace process.
As a frantic round of negotiations continued with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, meeting the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble in Dublin, Mr Murphy said theBritish government wanted elections and devolution to return.
During the opening of a new €57.4 million plant for Baileys Irish Cream in Newtownabbey, the Northern Ireland Secretary said: "This week we are going toput legislation through Parliament setting up the independent monitoringcommission.
"That should give confidence to people in Northern Ireland that thisindependent monitoring body will be able to look at alleged paramilitaryactivity and also, in the case of the British members, look at breaches whichpertain to the Good Friday Agreement.
"I believe that will help confidence building because at the end of the dayit is about restoring the trust between the political parties.
"I think the people of Northern Ireland want their Assembly back. They wanttheir Government back, but also they want to ensure that we tackle theunderlying problems of continuing paramilitary activity and the sustainabilityof the Assembly which led to the breakdown in the political process nearly ayear ago."
Mr Murphy was commenting at the start of what is likely to be a crucial weekfor the process.
A frantic series of meetings involving the Irish and British governments andpolitical parties has been planned for the coming days while legislationcreating the four-member monitoring commission is considered by MPs.
The commission will comprise former Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice, JohnGrieve who headed the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist unit, Joe Brosnan whoworked in the Irish Department of Justice, and former deputy director of the CIAin the United States, Richard Kerr.
PA