Fresh multi-party talks aim to salvage peace process

NEW talks aimed at easing the crisis in the Northern peace process are set to be held in Belfast next week.

Northern Secretary Paul Murphy has invited all parties in the Stormont Assembly to a round table meeting at Parliament Buildings on Thursday.

The bid to save the Good Friday Agreement has been launched following the suspension of the devolved administration last month.

Mr Murphy and Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen have asked all sides to take part in the review to see how political progress can be made.

Every party which has representatives at Stormont has been invited to send two people to the negotiations.

But the anti-Good Friday Agreement Democratic Unionists, led by the Rev Ian Paisley, have vowed to boycott any talks around the four-year-old accord.

Unionist confidence in sharing power with republicans hit an all-time low following the allegations of an IRA spy-ring inside the Government's main Belfast offices.

With next May's elections to the assembly now in doubt because of the suspension, the two governments have urged all parties to help end the logjam.

In a joint letter, Mr Cowen and Mr Murphy said: "We see the principal purpose of the meeting as being to enable each party to indicate what it sees as the issues requiring resolution and advancement if the current difficulties are to be overcome.

"We need to focus on the key issues early, with a view to re-establishing conditions for devolved government in advance of the scheduled Assembly elections.

"Following the views expressed at the meeting and taking into account any areas of agreement identified, we will in consultation with the parties - consider how matters should be taken forward."

The British and Irish Governments announcement of talks next week was welcomed by nationalist parties in the North.

However Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Mark Durkan insisted that they should not be "a half-day wonder".

He said: "The SDLP has been pressing hard to get all of the parties around the table to deal with all of the confidence issues and get all of the agreement implemented for all of the people.

"The SDLP recognises there are real confidence issues surrounding the actions of republicans paramilitaries not least the apparent spy ring.

"Nationalists have real confidence issues too that must equally be addressed on power sharing and the threat from loyalists.

Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness gave a clear welcome to the convening of multi-party talks, saying it was what his party had been calling for since the political institutions had been suspended.

But he made it clear Sinn Féin would not stand for a re-negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr McGuinness said there was a need for the talks and for the governments to publish their plan for implementing the agreement in full.

"We need to see these issues addressed with the urgency that the present crisis demands," he said.

"We need to see the political institutions put back in place and all outstanding issues resolved.

"But there can be no question of a re-negotiation of the agreement."