Reynolds issues talks warning

The suspension of multi-party talks on the future of Northern Ireland was an "admission of failure" on the Ulster peace process by the London and Dublin governments, the former Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds said yesterday.

Mr Reynolds (left) also repeated a call for paramilitary leaders in Northern Ireland to get together. "At the end, everybody is going to have to talk to everybody. If we continue in a vacuum, and with no activity, inevitably it may lead to a new leadership in Sinn Fein, which will be in my view more hardline than we have got," he warned.