Murphy and Cowen hold agreement talks

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy was today having talks on the state of the Good Friday Agreement with Foreign Minister Brian Cowen in Dublin.

Mr Murphy and Mr Cowen were meeting amid growing concerns among nationalists about the review of the Good Friday Agreement due to take place on February 3.

Today’s meeting was taking place after it emerged that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will meet the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists at the Irish Embassy in London next week, probably next Thursday.

Nationalist SDLP chairman Alex Attwood and Sinn Féin’s former Stormont Health Minister Bairbre de Brun yesterday warned London and Dublin to avoid a protracted review.

Mr Attwood also said his party had made it clear to the Government that it must tell Downing Street it would not tolerate any slowing down of the Agreement.

“It is their responsibility to make sure that Downing Street does not slow down or pull up things,” the west Belfast MLA said.

“It is their responsibility to make sure that the message goes out loud and clear that the DUP is not going to be given space in order to further upset politics on this island.”

Mr Attwood expressed SDLP concerns that the British government would hold back on commitments under the Good Friday Agreement while it waited for the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists to adjust to their new role as the leading voice in unionism.

His party and Sinn Féin have both argued that DUP demands that the Agreement be radically altered in the review should not be indulged.

Mr Cowen and Mr Murphy were today meeting in Dublin under the terms of a British Irish Intergovernmental Conference meeting.

Ministers from both governments are expected to jointly chair meetings of the review when it gets under way next month.

DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson last night hit back at the SDLP following its call on the governments to get tough on anti Agreement unionists.

“The November Assembly election showed that the Belfast Agreement is dead, yet the SDLP appear unwilling to assist in its burial,” the east Belfast MP responded.

“Instead they wish to breathe new life back into an Agreement which cannot work because the majority of unionists have rejected it as the way forward for Northern Ireland.

“Two-thirds of unionist voters want a new, fair deal not the old, failed Belfast Agreement given another go.” Mr Robinson added that the SDLP’s failure to accept the need for a new deal in Northern Ireland made them a rejectionist party.

A senior Ulster Unionist last night also launched an attack on Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair’s handling of the Agreement in recent years.

Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson told colleagues in West Tyrone he no longer had “any confidence in either Government ensuring unionist concerns on the Belfast Agreement.

“Time and again they have capitulated to the applied pressure from Sinn Féin/IRA, continually giving in to their demands.

“Tony Blair, by his unkept promises, has been the author of the destruction of the Belfast Agreement.”

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was today holding a series of meetings with senior US politicians in Washington including members of President George W Bush’s administration.

The west Belfast MP has also warned in recent days the Irish and British governments not to hold back on their commitment in the Good Friday Agreement and in last year’s joint declaration on the peace process.