Northern Secretary signals reform of shadow Assembly

The British government may be prepared to reform a shadow Northern Assembly before power-sharing is fully restored, Northern Secretary Peter Hain signalled today.

With the Stormont Parliament costing £78m (€114m) since it was suspended more than three years ago, attempts are being intensified to get all sides in Belfast to break the political deadlock.

And Mr Hain, who will head fresh political talks at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down tomorrow, insisted a series of ideas were up for discussion.

He said: "Obviously, in order to get a power-sharing government to develop power through an executive in which all the parties are represented - and that remains the objective - to get that, you have to have the Assembly in place first.

"Now there is a sequence here as to how long the bridge between the Assembly convening for the first time in over three years - and everyone is agreed that that has to happen - how long the bridge is to when you get the power-sharing executive up and running, and that is what we will be discussing."

The Northern Secretary gave his assessment after he was asked about a shadow Assembly with an end date set for the point when power-sharing should start.

The devolved regime at Stormont was halted amid allegations of an IRA spy ring that soured trust between unionists and republicans.

Mr Hain, who can call a snap election, warned he was not prepared to go through the charade of a scheduled May 2007 poll to an Assembly that does not exist.

"I mean, that is just absurd," he told ITV1's Dimbleby Show.

"Given that, if there were to be the conditions for an election I have taken the power to bring it forward because I want to see the Assembly up and running, I want to see power-sharing government devolved to Northern Ireland again.

"It is a question of building trust because there is a lot of distrust and suspicion, particularly between the Democratic Unionist Party of Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin and Gerry Adams.

"We have got to bridge that gap and move forward together because I think the people of Northern Ireland want this all to be brought to a head."

Mr Hain also denied British Prime Minister Tony Blair had cancelled a planned trip to the North this week to deliver a keynote speech.

"The exact timing and date for that visit were still being discussed," he insisted.

"What the Prime Minister wants to do - and we are working on this together with the Irish Prime Minister and Foreign minister - is to get real momentum into the talks which are taking place at Hillsborough Castle tomorrow, which I will be leading.

"I think there is a real chance now of the parties agreeing that we can't continue this existing state of political paralysis.

"We need to make progress. The clock is ticking and the Assembly has now been suspended for three years - more than three years.

"It has cost £78m (€114m) to keep it idle. We can't keep on like this and I think there is a willingness on all the parties to find a way forward.''