Bid to resurrect North Executive

NORTHERN Secretary Paul Murphy said yesterday he was hopeful the Executive in the North would be up and running again by March 17 once a series of intense roundtable talks are completed.

The Executive was dissolved last autumn when the Ulster Unionists withdrew and refused to share power with Sinn Féin until IRA decommissioning was completed.

Moves to get the Executive back on track will intensify next Wednesday when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet all the pro-Agreement parties at Hillsborough.

Mr Murphy does not expect this meeting to produce an immediate resolution to the impasse, but he is confident it could be secured at further meetings before March 17. "I am hopeful the issues will be addressed by all parties that will allow the Executive to resume by St Patrick's Day," Mr Murphy said.

A key component to getting the Executive back on track will be an act of completion by the IRA and a commitment that punishment beatings will stop, he said.

Mr Murphy said if they could secure this commitment, then moves could be made on restoring normalisation and delivering key Sinn Féin demands.

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble has been demanding an act of completion by the IRA since last October.

But critics of the unionists claim the same pressure should be put on them to get the UDA to disband as is being put on Sinn Féin to get the IRA to decommission.

While the Northern Secretary condemned the UDA's activities in recent days as criminal, he said the comparison with the IRA cannot be made.

"Sinn Fein is linked to an army that is active and it has two ministers in the Executive but the UDA has no links with any party that is in the Executive an this is the major difference," Mr Murphy said.

But the Northern Secretary said every effort will be made to get the UDA to cease its criminal activities. Mr Murphy made his comments on a one-day.