THE British and Irish governments were right to withhold their blueprint for the Northern Ireland peace process as republicans refused to face up to their responsibilities, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said yesterday.

THE potential threats which both dissident Irish republican and Ulster loyalist terrorism present to the Northern Ireland peace process were evaluated at top-level Irish and British government talks in Dublin yesterday.

The Irish and British governments yesterday both looked forward to new Northern Ireland Assembly elections going ahead on schedule in May after a series of political exchanges in Dublin.

Northern Secretary John Reid has insisted that the collapse of the Stormont Assembly is not in the interests of the people of the North.