Gordon Brown declined to press Colonel Muammar Gaddafi for compensation for IRA bomb victims out of concern that a ministerial intervention might upset relations with Libya, it emerged today.

Urgent talks are being held in Belfast today in a bid to end the plight of more than 100 Romanians forced to flee their homes after a spate of racist attacks.

Unionists are not going to throw Sinn Féin a lifeline in the current stand-off over support for policing, a senior MP in the Rev Ian Paisley’s party claimed today.

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and DUP leader Ian Paisley are today preparing for an historic face-to-face meeting in London.

The Red Hand Defenders, a cover name for the Ulster Defence Association and the Loyalist Volunteer Force, has claimed responsibility for a bomb planted outside the offices of Republican Sinn Fein on the Falls Road in west Belfast yesterday.