Bruton to urge talks on N Ireland

COLIN BROWN

Chief Political Correspondent

The Irish Prime Minister will today seek to reach agreement with John Major to end the impasse over the stalled Northern Ireland peace process.

John Bruton is expected to use contacts between officials in Dublin and London to speak to the Prime Minister by telephone to move the peace process forward.

Mr Bruton will urge Mr Major to agree to announce a target date for the start of all-party round-table talks within six weeks of the start of work by an international commission on decommissioning weapons.

Although the timetable by the Taoiseach will be regarded by London as unrealistic, both sides insisted the gap between the two governments was narrower than appeared from the weekend war of words between the two leaders over the timing of the next step.

It was learnt last night that Mr Major wrote to Mr Bruton at the weekend in a preliminary response to the Irish pressure for movement over the twin-track approach to the settlement. Mr Major has emphatically denied that it is Britain, which is responsible for the impasse.

Sir Patrick Mayhew, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said yesterday there was no rift between the two governments. Sir Patrick, speaking in Larne, Co Antrim, said the obstacle to progress in the talks process was the paramilitaries' refusal to make even a start to the decommissioning of weapons.

The Secretary of State would like to see the ground laid for all-party talks by next February. Mr Bruton said the Irish government was ready to move now on the next steps towards all-party talks, but Dublin sources denied this was a call for the talks to begin now.

The Irish Foreign Minister, Dick Spring, has been pushing for a settlement to be reached through negotiation round the table. The twin-track approach by the two governments originally envisaged a fresh round of bilateral or trilateral talks between the governments and the individual parties, including Sinn Fein, while the international commission on decommissioning weapons began its work.

London wants the commission to report back on progress before bringing Sinn Fein into all-party talks. Dublin now appears to believe the inter- party negotiations by Michael Ancram, the Northern Ireland minister, have failed to move the process forward, and instead wants to short-cut the twin-track process by moving to all-party talks after the commission has got under way.

The difficulty remains the refusal of the IRA to begin decommissioning its weapons. Dublin sources said Mr Bruton was keen to put pressure on Sinn Fein to make a compromise, by the two governments adopting a united approach. However, he has made clear he is seeking a compromise from the British government.

The Prime Minister accused the Irish government of bowing to Sinn Fein pressure when it pulled out of a planned summit between Mr Major and Mr Bruton to announce the twin-track plan.