North-South meeting takes place in Belfast

The first North-South ministerial meeting is taking place in the north today.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen will meet with the First and Deputy Ministers, David Trimble and Mark Durkan at Stormont at 10.30am.

Today’s meeting is a stock-taking exercise on how the council is progressing.

The council will discuss matters such as staffing and premises and will touch on the wider political issue of the institutions set up by the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Cowen will travel later today to Armagh to the Centre of Cross Border Studies.

The centre is carrying out a survey on cross border co-operation and what can be done in areas such as banking, health insurance and education.