Ahern seeks to heal stadium rift with Harney

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern and Tánaiste Mary Harney will today begin efforts to find a compromise on the planned National Stadium as time begins to run out for the joint Irish-Scottish bid for the 2008 European soccer championships.

Hopes of a clear decision on the issue at a Cabinet meeting today vanished last night as fresh evidence of a continuing rift between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats within the coalition government emerged.

Compromise talks will centre on a decision to use the government-owned site at Abbotstown, near Dublin, for a scaled-down