Ahern to meet Trimble today on logjam

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will meet the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Mr Trimble, at 8.15 a.m. today to discuss current developments in the Northern Ireland peace process. The meeting was sought by Mr Trimble, who had planned to come to the England-Ireland match at Lansdowne Road on Saturday. A meeting was finalised yesterday to discuss the legislation required to implement the North-South implementation bodies provided for under the Belfast Agreement.

It is understood the Taoiseach will be anxious to raise with Mr Trimble the current logjam on decommissioning which is preventing the setting up of the Northern Executive on March 10th .

The North-South implementation bodies are due to be set up in parallel with the executive.

The meeting, brought forward by Mr Trimble, comes in the wake of Mr Ahern's recent interview in The Sunday Times in which he hardened his view, often expressed in the Dail, that the political reality is that a start to decommissioning will be required before the unionists can sit in a government with Sinn Fein.

Some 45 per cent of respondents supported this view in The Irish Times MRBI opinion poll last week, while 39 per cent thought that it was not possible to have decommissioning before the formation of a Northern government.