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Blair holds meet to end Ulster deadlock

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON OCT. 13. Hopes of an end to the year-long political deadlock in North Ireland were raised today after the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, held a "peace summit" in Downing Street with his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, and the Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, amid a looming constitutional deadline for holding elections to the provincial Assembly.

The one-point agenda was to revive the political process which has been in a limbo since last October after the Assembly at Stormont was suspended following allegations of spying against IRA.

Elections to the Assembly were due in May but were postponed as the Unionists and the Republicans refused to give up their hardline stance on their demands.

Some progress was reported at today's talks, which were still in progress late in the afternoon, but differences on key issues remained.

Indeed, as they arrived in Downing Street for the "make-or-break" talks, Mr. Trimble and Mr. Adams stuck to their familiar script.

While Mr. Trimble insisted on the IRA demonstrating its intention of giving up paramilitary activity, Mr. Adams repeated his opposition to any pre-conditions.

In the past, he described the Unionists' stand on IRA decommissioning as political blackmail.

Mr. Adams, who has consistently opposed the suspension of the Assembly, said: "We are working on the basis that there is going to be an election soon.

The endeavours today are about trying to ensure that elections return working, democratic and sustainable institutions."

Mr. Trimble said the issues that had held up an agreement remained the "same, namely whether there is going to be an end to paramilitary activity, whether Republicans are going to deal — and this time effectively — with the decommissioning issue and whether as a result of that it is going to be possible for the Assembly to resume and for elections to occur."

Earlier, Mr. Ahern admitted that there had not been enough progress in narrowing down the differences between the two sides.

But the `positive' aspect, he said, was that the political parties in Northern Ireland were working hard to reach an agreement.

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