Trimble walks out of talks after Dublin says IRA still active

The Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, walked out of talks yesterday aimed at restoring devolved government to Northern Ireland in protest against reports of increasing activity by the IRA.

The former first minister took exception to the contents of a leaked Irish government document which contained an assessment that the IRA was involved in training, targeting and recruiting. Although it also said Dublin believed the IRA was acquiring small quantities of weapons, it described this as "a precaution rather than in preparation for a return to war", characterising republican leaders as being fully committed to the peace process.

Irish ministers quickly tried to distance themselves from the document, saying they received many assessments from officials in advance of talks, but there was unmistakeable embarrassment at its emergence.

Mr Trimble made a brief appearance at the latest session of round-table talks in Belfast, chaired jointly by British and Irish ministers, to register a protest then depart.

He has placed little apparent importance on the talks, staying away from some sessions and threatening to pull out of the process. Later, Mr Trimble said: "The people of Northern Ireland would not understand us talking as if nothing had happened. It explodes the claim of the [republican] leadership to be committed to exclusively peaceful means."

Other Unionists also left the talks, intended to rebuild the coalition government which collapsed weeks ago after large-scale political espion- age by the IRA was exposed.

* The former defence secretary Lord Carrington, 83, told the Bloody Sunday inquiry yesterday that Downing Street's opinion, after paratroopers killed 13 Catholic men on a Derry City civil rights march in January 1972, was that it had been a "fairly disastrous" military operation.