UUP leader calls for talks to end mandatory power-sharing

Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey called today for early talks with his SDLP counterpart over his proposal that mandatory power-sharing between nationalists and unionists at Stormont should be ended.

SDLP chief Mark Durkan claimed in a keynote speech in Oxford last night that the time was approaching when rules introduced to protect nationalists in the North's government should be removed.