Blair yet to decide on Ulster talks

Prime Minister Tony Blair is still undecided about whether to travel to Northern Ireland for talks on the peace process, the Government indicated today.

He is believed to be still weighing up the value of talks with the pro-Good Friday Agreement parties at Hillsborough Castle tomorrow to resolve the problems in the peace process.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said: ‘‘Intensive contacts continue between the two governments and the parties but we are not in a position to say definitively whether there will be talks this week.

‘‘We still hope that will be the case but we can’t say for sure at the moment. I would expect the position would become clearer during the course of the day.’’

It is understood Mr Blair is keen to take part in discussions with the province’s politicians but the Irish Government is still unsure.

If Ireland’s Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, joins the discussions, it will mean cutting short a visit to Japan.

The two governments have been trying to break the deadlock over police reforms, IRA decommissioning, British demilitarisation and unionist sanctions against Sinn Fein.

However, there is still no sign that intense negotiations involving British and Irish Government officials, the Ulster Unionists, the nationalist SDLP and Sinn Fein in recent weeks are in any way closer to striking a deal.

Sources in Belfast and Dublin have in recent days been pessimistic about the prospects of an overarching deal and have been stressing that it may only be possible to strike an intermediate agreement to take the peace process through the General Election and to the summer.

But a senior SDLP figure warned today that any move to ‘‘park’’ the process would be a risky strategy.

Stormont Higher and Further Education Minister Sean Farren claimed in an article in the Irish Times that this ‘‘would be an admission of failure’’.

Mr Farren also criticised what he called the ‘‘privatising’’ of the peace process through individual negotiations between parties and the two governments and called for a round-table process instead.