Ahern and Blair will meet next week

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are to have talks in London next week about Northern Ireland.

The meeting will go ahead in Downing Street on Monday and will assess the general political situation, including the decommissioning of terrorist arsenals, progress towards demilitarisation - and the approaching marching season in Northern Ireland.

The two-hour-long discussions are also set to consider continuing Anglo-Irish differences over the operation of the nuclear waste disposal complex at Sellafield, Cumbria.

Dublin claims the site amounts to an environmental and pollution threat and a potential terrorist strike target.