THE Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister had a brief conversation about Northern Ireland on the margins of Saturday's EU summit, and called on all parties in the North to show willingness to compromise.
Meanwhile a Government spokesman has rejected reports that the two governments are considering suspending the talks for nine months, rather than allow them to collapse in deadlock. "I know of no such proposal," said the spokesman. The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, insisted he was committed to the talks process continuing.
Mr Bruton and Mr Major agreed that the talks should move on quickly to "substantial agenda items", according to the Government spokesman. Mr Major told a press conference he did not agree with the proposition that the peace process was dead.
"I am something of a veteran over the past four years of being told that the peace process is dead," he said. He agreed that the process had become bogged down, but said the people of Northern Ireland wanted to push their politicians towards an agreement.
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, emphasised yesterday that his party is not insisting that the IRA decommission some of its weapons before Sinn Fein becomes involved in the multi party talks.
"Our position has always been that people have to demonstrate a commitment to exclusively peaceful means, and the whole point about weapons is that it is the litmus test to show that," he said on RTE's This Week programme.
"Now we are not saying that it has to happen before the talks. We envisage circumstances where people can enter into talks but then we say there has to be very soon thereafter, evidence of good faith produced.
On the same programme Mr Spring rejected the statement by the UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, that he was "the most detested politician in Northern Ireland" as "absolute mischievous nonsense". Mr Trimble said he endorsed Mr Taylor's view.
"We don't have to like one another," said Mr Spring. "But at the end of the day we both have roles to play in trying to bring about an accommodation among the people of Northern Ireland.
Mr Trimble said that when negotiating with the Irish Government there seemed to be "more than one Irish delegation. We find the representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs extremely difficult to deal with and we are not convinced that there is a genuine commitment to the process on their part".