A team of Irish and British parliamentarians is to make an investigative trip to the Sellafield nuclear waste reprocessing plant earlier next year to assess security at the controversial plant.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid tonight held up the Good Friday Agreement on Ulster as a pattern for future progress.

The Sellafield nuclear waste reprocessing plant - which exposed major differences between the London and Dublin governments at a prime ministerial summit - will again be on the agenda at a conference involving British and Irish politicians this week.