Mandelson seeks compromise point for IRA, unionists

Republicans should meet unionists half way by providing an assurance that the IRA campaign is over and by proving they are committed to making politics work, the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, has said.

Mr Mandelson, following his speech in Dublin last week signalling a shift away from the demand for short-term decommissioning, last night again placed the focus on some form of guarantee that IRA guns will remain silent.

His speech comes amid speculation that the British and Irish governments will explore with the UUP and Sinn Fein whether some new form of sequencing could break the decommissioning logjam. This is understood to centre on an IRA declaration that its campaign is over, followed by the resumption of the executive, followed by an IRA move on arms.

Mr Mandelson also called on the UUP to follow its leader, Mr David Trimble, who on Saturday was reinstated as leader of the party after a challenge by the Rev Martin Smyth.

The Northern Secretary said last night that in partnership with the Irish Government it was his "urgent priority to rebuild the comfort and confidence necessary to restore the devolved institutions on the basis of cross-community participation".

"The only way forward is for the political parties, through dialogue and patient negotiation, to come to an accommodation," he told an Institute of Directors dinner in Belfast.

To this end it must be established that "now that the guns are silent they will stay silent and that any threat of a return to war has gone for ever, and that the political progress we make under the Good Friday agreement is consistent with the principles of consent and equality".

In comments aimed at unionists he said the Belfast Agreement secured the removal of the Irish Constitution's territorial claim to Northern Ireland and "set in stone the principle of consent".

To republicans he said: "And it is up to republicans to meet them half way, with the watertight assurance that the war is over, that violence will never again play a part in Northern Ireland politics."

Earlier yesterday Mr Mandelson told students in Belfast that Saturday's UUP leadership challenge was a warning signal of how opponents of the Belfast Agreement could play on the frustrations of those disappointed at the lack of decommissioning.

Sinn Fein's initial reaction to Mr Mandelson's remarks was negative. The party's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, accompanied by the party president, Mr Gerry Adams, and the former minister, Ms Bairbre de Brun, met Mr Mandelson at Stormont yesterday.

"I have to say I did not hear anything from the British Secretary of State that this British government has even the foggiest notion as to how it is to move forward," said Mr McGuinness.

Asked about Mr Mandelson's request for a guarantee that the IRA campaign was over Mr McGuinness said: "I don't think anybody can guarantee anything any more in this type of world we are living in."

However, had the institutions not been suspended, commitments could have been given that "we were moving forward to a new equal, just era, which would guarantee peace for everybody".

"All that I know is that the IRA clearly indicated for everybody that their guns were silent, and that they were not a threat to the peace process," he added.

An SDLP delegation led by Mr John Hume also met Mr Mandelson at Stormont. Mr Hume said the discussions were "very intensive and constructive".

The party proposed that the institutions be immediately restored and that the two governments, together with the pro-agreement parties, and Gen. John de Chastelain's decommissioning body work together to break the deadlock.