Prospect of election reduces NI "flexibility"

THE British Prime Minister, Mr Major, appeared to confirm that there will be no developments in the peace process until after the general election when he spoke by video link yesterday to a Belfast conference.

He said the process had hit a, "sticky patch" over the issue of decommissioning, and "it has come at a time when flexibility of mind over the issue is a touch reduced by the imminence of the general election".

Speaking to a gathering of business people in the Europa Hotel, Belfast, he said that after the election he would "seek to pursue the, peace process with the same priority and vigour that we have sought to proceed with it over the last five years or so".

He believed there were "some ways in which we can make progress". "It would not be helpful of me to spell them out, but I can see a way in which we can proceed and I give you the assurance that is what I would wish to do," he said.

"There is an election over the months that lie ahead in the Irish Republic as well. But I have no doubt I can offer a categoric assurance that I would pick up the peace process refreshed and invigorated after the general election and try and proceed with it."

The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, described his comments as "a clear admission of failure by this British government". It was a clear acknowledgment by Mr Major that the talks process which he had constructed at Stormont had failed.

The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition also expressed its concern that the talks would be "stalled for the next three or four months" when members met Mr Major for 90 minutes at Downing Street. Ms Bronagh Hinds said afterwards that Mr Major gave a guarantee that there would be no premature closure of the talks.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the publication of the International Report on Decommissioning, and Ms Hinds said they had told the Prime Minister they expected him to stand by the Mitchell Report and clearly and unequivocally rule out any precondition that decommissioning of some arms is required for entry to the talks".

The Coalition members, who also met the British Labour Party leader, Mr Tony Blair, criticised the unionist parties for "cynically manipulating to try to remove loyalist parties from the talks". Thin was "not a game of musical chairs where one or more parties may try to unseat others".