Unionists demand new agreement

Ian Paisley’s hardline Democratic Unionists were telling British Prime Minister Tony Blair today that an alternative to the Good Friday Agreement must be negotiated if the deadlock was to be broken in Northern Ireland.

Mr Paisley was leading a delegation to Downing Street to discuss the way forward after last month’s Assembly elections which saw his party overtake the Ulster Unionists.

It is the first time he has met the British Prime Minister face to face for a year.

But with the party winning 30 seats in last month’s elections to the Stormont Assembly, the North Antrim MP sits down with a powerful new mandate, confirming swelling unionist opposition to the Agreement.

Ahead of the meeting, his deputy Peter Robinson brushed aside criticism from political opponents who claim the DUP have no policies to restore powersharing to the North.

“We will be indicating to Mr Blair that he shouldn’t allow others to determine whether the DUP is seeking to reach Agreement or not. We are capable of speaking for ourselves,” he said.

“Some people have been attempting to define our position. We will define it as having a mandate for change. We are intending to be constructive in seeking an Agreement that unionists can sign up to as well as nationalists.”

Tomorrow, leaders from Northern Ireland’s other main parties will meet the Prime Minister in a bid to map out plans for a New Year review of the Agreement.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is also due at Downing Street for talks.

British government sources have described the discussions as a stock taking exercise after last month’s poll which left the prospect of devolution returning in the near future even more remote.

“We don’t expect to know what the parties want in the review until the end of the month but the Prime Minister wanted to see them before Christmas,” one official said.

The DUP, which has refused to negotiate with Sinn Féin, has said it would wait to see the review agenda before agreeing to take part in talks.

Mr Robinson added: “We have had some discussions with the Secretary of State on the items we will be looking for on the agenda. We haven’t seen any obstacles so far.”