Public angry at obduracy of SF and UUP, says McGrady

There is mounting community anger and frustration as Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party repeat "the mantras" about who is responsible for the current political deadlock, Mr Eddie McGrady of the SDLP has complained.

While British and Irish government ministers spoke of "fresh ideas" being discussed at yesterday's round-table talks at Stormont, the South Down MP said the parties central to the dispute were refusing to budge from fixed positions.

Mr McGrady said no real progress was made at yesterday's 90-minute meeting involving the pro-agreement parties and hosted by Ms Liz O'Donnell, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and Northern Ireland Office minister Mr Adam Ingram.

Further bilateral and plenary meetings aimed at breaking the logjam over decommissioning and the formation of an executive will be held at Stormont on Monday and Tuesday. It is hoped, though not certain, that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, will return to the talks late next week.

Ms O'Donnell said Mr Ahern and Mr Blair hoped to chair a further round of intensive meetings towards the end of next week. However, the meeting has not been formally scheduled, and while it would be Dublin's turn to host such a meeting no venue has yet been chosen.

Whether the meeting would take place "would depend on the availability of the two prime ministers", said Ms O'Donnell.

Mr McGrady said there was frustration turning to anger among the general public that the Belfast Agreement was not being implemented. He said the proagreement parties were trying to provide a "soft landing" for the UUP and Sinn Fein over the decommissioning issue where "neither would be defeated, and neither would be victorious".

"But this is proving extremely difficult because they are not inclined to move towards one another in any way. It is very disappointing to date. We have had a repetition of the mantras promoted over the past couple of weeks," he added.

He said the Belfast Agreement was not in "freefall" as Mr Gerry Adams had stated, but because of the entrenched positions of Sinn Fein and the UUP it was facing "tremendous difficulties".

"Those two parties, or both of them jointly, are going to have the responsibility of the totality of failure," added Mr McGrady.

Ms O'Donnell said the two governments and the parties were "strategising" about how to break the impasse. "I detected a willingness on behalf of all the participants today to explore proposals and new ideas - fresh thinking - in order to overcome the difficulties and concerns," she said.

"The repetition of fixed positions will get us nowhere. We will just have to explore ideas as to how people will be willing to move and make compromises. I did detect a willingness on behalf of the parties to be very focused on our immediate aim, which is the establishment of the executive." Ms O'Donnell told the parties during yesterday's talks that the Hillsborough Declaration, which urges that some paramilitary weapons be "put beyond use", had failed to bridge the gap between Sinn Fein and the UUP. To resolve the problem all the parties "have to take the strain together". Mr Ingram said people could take encouragement from the fact that the parties were still talking, and still showing a willingness and preparedness to listen to and consider new ideas in preparation for the meeting with the prime ministers.

Mr Ingram said progress would only come through an accommodation between the parties. "And we should not allow people in the wider community to imagine that we have given up the pursuit of the agreement. Once despair and disillusionment sets in the consequences could be grave," he added.

Ms Bairbre de Brun of Sinn Fein said it would be "very, very dangerous" to park the Belfast Agreement because of the deadlock.

She again called for the full implementation of the agreement, including the immediate establishment of the executive.