Bush pledges help for Ulster peace

US President George W Bush tonight pledged he to do everything he could to help Northern Ireland’s parties to strike a deal in talks to revive power-sharing.

As Sinn Féin and the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists considered the latest proposals to bring back Northern Ireland’s Assembly, US President confirmed he had contacted politicians in a bid to encourage them to reach agreement.

Speaking on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr Bush said he had sought to get Sinn Féin and the DUP “to the table to get a deal done to close the agreement they’d been working on for a while”.

The Associated Press also reported Mr Bush as saying he would do “everything I can do to help keep the process moving forward”.