Only one week left for progress, says Trimble

There is just one week for progress to be made allowing a restoration of devolution in Northern Ireland, UUP leader Mr David …

There is just one week for progress to be made allowing a restoration of devolution in Northern Ireland, UUP leader Mr David Trimble warned today.

With time running out for all sides in Belfast to reach agreement that will allow Assembly elections to take place in November, Mr Trimble insisted an "inch-by-inch" approach by the republican movement was not acceptable.

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The slow inch-by-inch transition which perhaps was not unreasonable five years ago is unreasonable now, five and a half years after the Agreement
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UUP leader Mr David Trimble

Mr Trimble, who has held talks with Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams amid a major push to restore the collapsed power-sharing administration at Stormont, predicted negotiations were set to intensify.

But he warned: "There's only a week or so left for progress to be achieved as I understand the timetable.

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"Let's hope that at some point we see the progress that is needed in terms of dealing with continuing paramilitary activity with acts of completion that are needed to enable the Assembly to be resumed."

The Stormont power-sharing Executive fell a year ago following allegations that the IRA was involved in an espionage plot at the heart of Government.

With unionists refusing to return to a cabinet with republicans until the IRA pledges to go out of business, Mr Trimble has been pressing for assurances from the Sinn Féin leadership.

But Republicans want guarantees that the Assembly can no longer be brought down by unionists.

The window for talks is closing fast if the proposed November 13th date for holding elections to the Assembly and restoring evolution is to be met.

"The slow inch-by-inch transition which perhaps was not unreasonable five years ago is unreasonable now, five and a half years after the Agreement," Mr Trimble warned Republicans.

"To think that somehow government will bite on a lollypop and accept another inch or two is to make a fundamental mistake about where the government is and therefore where we are," he said.

PA