Outcome of summit far from certain

IT would be hard to exaggerate the importance of today’s summit meeting between the North’s pro-peace agreement parties and the leaders of the British and Irish governments in a final effort to restore the North’s power-sharing Assembly and government.

Putting the Iraqi crisis on the back burner and leaving aside his own domestic political problems for a spell, Prime Minister Tony Blair joins Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in a bid to re-focus minds on the urgent need to complete the Good Friday peace process.

By any assessment the North is at a crossroads.