Blair flies in with plan to settle arms issue

TONY BLAIR has mapped out a new plan aimed at squaring the circle on decommissioning and finding the long-sought bridge between the republican and Unionist positions on the issue of arms.

The Prime Minister, who is due in Belfast this morning for what he has described as last-chance talks, has proposed that the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) should accept Sinn Fein in a new government without prior decommissioning by the IRA.

In return, he offers Unionists "cast-iron" guarantees that the IRA would complete decommissioning by May 2000. If this did not happen, then the executive could not continue.

The plan appears unlikely to find easy acceptance among either Unionists or republicans. The UUP has made it almost an article of faith that decommissioning must begin before an executive is formed. For their part, republicans speak of decommissioning as something which might happen, if at all, in the distant future.

The fragility of the peace process was yesterday underlined by the interception of a large bomb apparently destined for the city of Londonderry. Gardai in the Irish Republic foiled the bombing mission, which appears to be the work of renegade republicans, as the device was being taken from the Co Donegal town of Letterkenny towards Londonderry. A van stopped at a garda checkpoint was found to contain bomb-making parts.

Two arrests were made during the operation, following which the Royal Ulster Constabulary launched a search of a number of homes in the Creggan district of Londonderry. A major bomb attack such as was evidently planned would clearly have provided the worst possible backdrop for the attempt to make political progress.

As a prelude to the main talks in Belfast, the UUP leader David Trimble went into early morning talks at Downing Street yesterday. These did not include Mo Mowlam, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with whom Mr Trimble does not get on. The Cabinet also discussed Northern Ireland yesterday, while Mr Blair will this morning meet the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in London before they fly to Belfast together.

The Government made it clear yesterday that a breakthrough in the talks would mean power could be transferred to a new Northern Ireland government without delay. Margaret Beckett, Leader of the Commons, told MPs that if an agreement was reached, Ms Mowlam could put forward a devolution order in the House next Thursday, the day after the deadline set by Mr Blair.