The SDLP and the British government are very near to reaching a deal on policing, the Deputy First Minister has said.
Mr Seamus Mallon told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme progress had been made at talks involving all pro-Agreement parties at Hillsborough last Thursday. There were just a few issues to be resolved, and this could take place by June.
Mr Mallon said the British government had publicly recognised for the first time that changes might be necessary to the legislation underpinning police reform and not only the implementation plan which sprang from this.
This greatly increased the chances of an agreement between the SDLP and the British, he said. Such a deal "could well have been done on Thursday".
"I believe there's a recognition now right across the board that the British government in terms of the legislation setting up the Patten recommendations made something of a mess of it. I think that's the reality and there are one, two, maybe three major issues to be dealt with."
Mr Mallon was optimistic these could be addressed satisfactorily. "If you look at the joint statement that the governments issued on Thursday, for the first time it identifies two things: legislation and the implementation plan. That's the first time they have ever used the term legislation. Now I think those things could very well be got right, I'm confident that come June, which is the date specified, that we will be able to get it right." Mr Mallon was challenged by Sinn Fein's spokesman on policing to say how the British position had been altered.
"Seamus Mallon is saying that the British government moved on the policing issue last Thursday. What was the movement? And, more importantly, what areas still need to be resolved for the SDLP?" Mr Gerry Kelly said.
It was widely recognised, Mr Kelly said, that `in crucial areas including powers of inquiry, the powers of the Ombudsman and the powers of the policing board" amending legislation was necessary. "Is Seamus Mallon now saying that the SDLP, come June, are prepared to enter into the proposed policing arrangements without amendments to legislation?" Meanwhile, the First Minister said his ban on Sinn Fein Ministers attending North-South Ministerial Council meetings could be lifted if the IRA began meaningful discussions with the Independent International Decommissioning Commission (IIDC).
"What they should be doing in talking to Gen de Chastelain is agreeing a decommissioning scheme and agreeing a scheme whereby weapons could be decommissioned. If they did that, that would be significant progress," he said.
Mr Trimble told BBC's On the Record programme the ban could be re-imposed if there was no substantial progress. The Northern Secretary was also cautiously optimistic. Dr Reid said a small amount of progress had been made at Hillsborough. It had marked "a small step forward but more importantly I think there is now a route map for the next few weeks and months."