Northern Ireland's Education Minister Mr Martin McGuinness this morning called on the British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair to "accept his responsibility" to defend the Belfast Agreement.
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Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning in advance of a Downing Street meeting between the Taoiseach, Mr Blair and pro-agreement parties, Mr McGuinness said: "There is a key responsibility on the part of theBritish Prime Minister to defend the Good Friday Agreement."He must point out not just to MrPaisley but to Mr Donaldson and others that this agreement is going to be implemented," Mr McGuinness said.
He also said Mr Blair had to point out "to the securacrats within his own establishment and the people who hanker after decommissioning that the way that they are going about it is totally and absolutely dishonest and wrong."
Mr McGuinness said decommissioning was not just Sinn Féin's responsibility. "There can be no justifiable way that anyone can assume that the responsibility to deal with the issue of decommissioning is solely the responsibility of the Sinn Féin leadership," he said.
But anti-agreement Ulster UnionistMr Jeffrey Donaldsonsaid the British government and other parties had made efforts to accommodate Sinn Féin and that it was now its turn to deliver on its side of the agreement.
"I think that everyone recognisesthat the government andother parties have bent over backwards to accommodate Sinn Féin and the IRA to the extent now that Sinn Féin are now the dominant political force in nationalism in the North and I think it is now time for them to deliver on their side of the bargain," Mr Donaldson told RTÉ.
Overshadowing the new efforts is the deadline imposed by Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble's threat to resign as First Minister on July 1st unless there has been a significant move on decommissioning.
The talks are due to continue in Belfast under the chairmanship of Northern Ireland secretary Dr John Reid and Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Cowen during the week.
Dr Reid yesterday stood by the British government's insistence there is no alternative to the agreement.
It was "wishful thinking" to believe there was an alternative to the basic agreement, he said. "What we have got to do is to implement further, to build on what we have already done in it."
In a clear message to the DUP, which wants to renegotiate the agreement he added: "What we are not going to do is to abandon the Good Friday Agreement because it is the only basis in which you can have cross-community support."
The DUP will not be at today's meeting because it refuses to talk to Mr Ahern, he said.
Additional reporting PA