The British and Irish governments yesterday were set to launch a make-or-break review of Northern Ireland's peace process as a US government special envoy for the province begins a series of talks with the main parties in Belfast.
British Minister for Northern Ireland Paul Murphy and Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen are to preside over the talks between the province's bitterly opposed Roman Catholic and Protestant parties, notably Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Britain and Ireland are co-sponsors of a 1998 power-sharing accord, known as the Good Friday agreement, which has been deadlocked since London reimposed direct rule in Northern Ireland amid allegations that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had a spy at Stormont, the province's seat of government.
The deadlock deepened when the DUP and Sinn Fein topped the polls in elections for a new legislature, held in November last year.
On Monday, the US government's new special envoy for Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, arrived on his first visit here for what is expected to be three months of negotiations to revive the province's self-governing Assembly and executive, suspended since October, 2002.
"I come at a time when widespread political violence is fortunately a thing of the past," he told reporters after meeting with Murphy.
"However, there is frustration that devolved government is not yet a reality. There is also even greater frustration, I understand, that paramilitary violence both republican and loyalist continues.
"This is a stain on the reputation of Northern Ireland. It robs the people of Northern Ireland of their future," he said.
Reiss, director of policy planning at the US State Department, was appointed last month to replace Richard Haass.
Last week, he met Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, in the US.
The DUP, which has refused to join an executive in which Sinn Fein is represented, is reportedly planning to submit tomorrow to British Prime Minister Tony Blair an alternate blueprint to the Good Friday agreement.
A DUP source said the proposal would call for London to relinquish its direct rule in the province to the assembly in Belfast. The source said the assembly would be made up of committees comprising all the parties, including Sinn Fein.
"Not only will Sinn Fein not be given entry to an executive before decommissioning all its weapons, but all the other paraphernalia of terrorism will have to go as well," said Peter Robinson, the DUP's deputy leader.
On the republican side, however, such proposals are not welcomed by Sinn Fein or the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
"We want to see where the DUP are coming from, but they should not have the upper hand in being able to block the formation of an executive," said Martin McGuinness, deputy leader of Sinn Fein.
Sean Farran, the SDLP's senior negotiator, warned that "if the parties are allowed to re-negotiate the agreement and re-do all its institutions then we are in a danger of a long review and a long suspension."
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