Ahern demands end to violence after suspension

Political Editor

But Mr Ahern warned unionists they must play their part in ending loyalist paramilitary violence.

Mr Ahern was speaking as the Northern Ireland Government and Parliament concluded its final working day before direct rule from London was re-imposed. The fourth suspension of the North's democratic institutions inside three years was caused by a row over allegations of republicans being involved in political spying.

Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid appointed two more junior ministers, bringing his total team to four. These will take over the work of the 10 Northern Ireland Government Ministers.

Dr Reid said he regretted the breakdown of trust which led to the suspension and warned lack of progress in winding up the IRA was a major part of this. "It is essential concerns about commitment to exclusively democratic and non violent means are removed," he warned.

The Taoiseach and British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a joint statement expressing sadness at the need for the suspension.

Both leaders deplored the continuing paramilitary activity and said groups must chose exclusively democratic politics.

In Dublin, Mr Ahern said he believed all the parties in the North held the view that both the executive and the assembly could be revived before elections due next May. Mr Ahern acknowledged unionists' concerns over delays in standing down the IRA. "I think certainly the unionist community will argue that the transition from violence to total democratic means must be fulfilled," Mr Ahern said.

But Mr Ahern went on to say that loyalist paramilitaries had also killed nationalists in the recent past and sectarian violence in Belfast remained a major concern. He accepted the distinction that loyalist paramilitaries were not linked to the North's Government but stressed all sides were obliged to rebuild trust.

For the immediate future the North will be governed directly from London. The North's politicians will continue on reduced salaries, with the use of their offices for constituency business until the end of this year. Dublin will have an input into the process through the British-Irish Council, a forum for both leaders and Government ministers, which has only met once since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. It is expected that Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen and Dr Reid will meet in this forum next week.

Hopes of advancing the process rest with policing legislation due to be brought in to the British Parliament by early next year. It is hoped this can encourage Sinn Féin to join the policing board, which supervises the working of the new force.

US President George W Bush said the suspension of the North's institutions was a difficult decision but a necessary step.

He stressed that the Good Friday Agreement was the only way

forward for a lasting solution.