Ahern to push for Assembly elections

THE Government is to press for Assembly elections to be held in the North by November, but accepts that they may not happen until the New Year.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen are to travel to London tomorrow to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his summer residence, Chequers.

Reaching agreement over a strategy on the suspended institutions and postponed elections, the Taoiseach said, would head the agenda.

Mr Ahern said he would emphasise the need to come up with a solution in the next three or four weeks to enable the British Government to call elections. They were postponed by Mr Blair last May to facilitate the pro-agreement leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party.

In addition to announcing the joint monitoring body, the Government has met with Sinn Féin and the SDLP in the past week to discuss the impasse.

The Taoiseach and Mr Cowen will also meet UUP leader David Trimble next week.

The Taoiseach, speaking at his party's seminar in Sligo, said the governments would not be in a position tomorrow to set a date, but said he and Mr Cowen hoped to get into that position within a few weeks.

He referred to two complications in the process. If the elections are not called by the end of November, the British Government will be required to pass legislation in Westminster.

The legislation setting up the

Assembly elections provided that fresh elections had to be held within five years and that period will expire in November.

The second difficulty relates to Ireland's presidency of the EU, which begins in January. Mr Ahern said yesterday he was keen that the issues be resolved before then, but accepted that that might not be the case.

"We have a period but only a period (to call a date)," he said.

He said that the Irish Government had disagreed with Mr Blair's decision to postpone the election in May. "We thought it was a short-sighted solution and that we would be back with the same problems in October that we had in March and April."

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Gerry Adams and Mr Trimble have held their first face-to-face talks since the Ulster Unionist Council backed action against three MPs rebelling against the Unionist leader.

A Sinn Féin spokesman confirmed Mr Adams met Mr Trimble but said the party will not be publicly releasing the issues discussed by the two leaders.

"It is a matter of public knowledge that if we are pressing for an election date as soon as possible, that there is also a need to ensure that the institutions will be sustained and that the outstanding aspects of the Good Friday Agreement will be completed.

Mr Adams and Martin McGuinness have also met with Mr Blair away from the public spotlight in recent days.

Mr Trimble downplayed the discussions, saying: "The discussions were simply part of a normal process of keeping in touch with all parties involved in the political process."