The Taoiseach has criticised media speculation pinpointing November 13 as the possible date for Northern Assembly elections.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern last night arrived back in Dublin following his two-hour meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, without announcing a date for the North's Assembly elections.

SHOOTINGS and beatings of children by paramilitary organisations in the North have increased almost fivefold since the Good Friday Agreement supposedly put the peace process on a firm footing.

Sinn Féin is calling on the Government to apply as much political pressure on the British government as possible to announce a date for the Northern assembly elections.

Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen is due to meet the US envoy to Ireland later today to discuss the current impasse in the Irish peace process.

Richard Haass, US President George W Bush's envoy to Ireland, has called for the cancelled Northern Assembly elections to be held as soon as possible.

SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams yesterday called for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to reconsider the postponement of Northern Assembly elections, saying there was no reason they couldn’t be held as soon as next month.

The Taoiseach has said an absence of trust and confidence led to the suspension of the Northern Assembly elections.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived in Dublin for talks with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today.

THE meeting today in Dublin between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair is taking place amid heightening tensions over the British Government’s decision to postpone the Northern Assembly elections until the autumn.

MAJOR reform of policing and criminal justice in the North will be the Taoiseach’s main demands when he meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a special summit in Dublin today.

The Democratic Unionist Party has handed in its nominations for the Northern Assembly elections, which are due to be postponed by the British government.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern last night promised to continue to pursue elements of the joint declaration of the Irish and British Governments despite the postponement of Northern Assembly elections yesterday.

Following the postponement earlier this afternoon of the Northern Assembly elections, the Irish and British governments have issued the joint declaration on peace in the North.

The British government is expected to make a decision today on whether to postpone the Northern Assembly elections scheduled for May 29th.

Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen has said the Irish and British governments have no plans to postpone the Northern Assembly elections scheduled for May 29.

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has said that the British government would be calling a halt to the Irish peace process if it decided to postpone the Northern Assembly elections scheduled for May 29.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has criticised the decision of a right-wing Conservative Party MP to leave Westminster and stand as a DUP candidate in next year’s Northern Assembly elections.