Obstacles still hold up progress in North

NORTHERN IRELAND parties still want elections sooner rather than later, the Taoiseach said yesterday, but the same obstacles remain to be overcome.

Following his meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the weekend, Mr Ahern said the problem was going beyond the Assembly elections and getting an executive up and running.

"We want to have an election this side of Christmas. We want to have the prospect that that election will give us a power-sharing executive and we want to see that they will implement a Programme for Government that will give stability in Northern Ireland and not have the stop-start crises," he said.

Ahead of his meeting with Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble in Dublin today, Mr Ahern said the political progress was not going to come if the issue of the IRA's weapons and the paramilitaries continued existence was not dealt with.

"We have to get a clear definitive statement if we are going to make the political progress. We are not going to get David Trimble who has been through a lot and who has fought for the agreement and has taken tough stands we are not going to get that progress from him to move unless we clear these issues."

Speaking on RTÉ radio, Mr Ahern said it would be wrong to say there is a done deal at this point.

"But unless both of us are reading it wrong, there is a determination by all the parties to have an election early and to try and make sure that the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement and the spirit of the Assembly working with the executive in a joint way is there. Nobody has given me an alternative view to that," he said.

Following their meeting at Chequers, in England, on Saturday, Mr Ahern and Mr Blair described the talks on the political process as useful. But no date has been set for elections to the Assembly, which were postponed in May. The North's devolved administration was suspended last October amid allegations of IRA intelligence-gathering.

Although there has been growing speculation that the elections might be called in the next couple of months, both Irish and British sources played down the chances of any major announcement after the meeting.

Also at the weekend, Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said Mr Blair had to make a decision in the next two to three weeks. Following a meeting of the Sinn Féin leadership in Dublin, Mr McGuinness said republicans were frustrated by the slow progress in resolving the impasse.