Stormont talks to adjourn until after election

NINE months after the process began and in the absence of any significant political progress the Stormont multi-party talks are set to adjourn today until after the forthcoming British general election and the Northern Ireland local elections.

On the eve of today's talks the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, published a set off proposals which include initiating low-level North-South links, and which the UUP says are aimed at avoiding a political vacuum over the coming months.

The Dublin and SDLP response, however, was lukewarm the view being that the "common-sense" measures masked a continuing hardline stance by the UUP on decommissioning. Government sources particularly noted that Mr Trimble will not engage with Sinn Fein, even in the event of a renewed IRA ceasefire.

A Government spokesman said last night the timing of the proposals' publication "just after nine months of talks which have failed to move on issues of substance and just before the adjournment raises doubts about the tactical context of this initiative".

Meanwhile, the British and Irish governments are today expected to agree to a suspension of the negotiations after meeting the talks chairman, Mr George Mitchell, and the nine participating parties.

While there may be a temptation to adjourn the talks until the autumn when the heated parading season should have run its course, it is also expected that the multiparty negotiations will resume in June.

"I think people will want to test the political temperature again in June," said a Government source in Dublin.

The Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, and the Tanaiste, Mr Dick Spring, are due to attend today's plenary session where Mr Mitchell will report that the parties are still deadlocked on the issue of arms decommissioning.

Next Wednesday Mr Spring and Sir Patrick will meet again in Dublin at an Anglo-Irish Conference where the talks process and the prospects of further disturbances during the marching season will be reviewed.

The UUP described its initiatives yesterday as an "interim set of common sense proposals" aimed at avoiding a political vacuum during the election period and thereafter.

Mr Trimble said the proposals in the party document, Pathways to Peace Within the Union, could run in parallel with the talks when they resume after the elections.

They would involve no "constitutional compromise or aspirational sacrifice by anyone. We see these measures being completely complementary to the talks"," said Mr Trimble.

His four main proposals are: a more structured relationship between the British government and Northern politicians; a single umbrella body for the North's 6 local authorities; the implementation of justice and rights issues; and co-operation with Dublin as "was the case in the days of the Stormont government".

Mr Trimble stressed that the UUP would not be drawn into a position which allowed for Sinn Fein's "arrival at the [talks] table" and he acknowledged the apparently unbridgeable difference between unionists and Dublin and the SDLP over decommissioning.

A Government spokesman welcomed some of the socio-economic proposals but said such matters could better be tackled in substantive, inclusive talks.

Mr Hume also gave a guarded welcome to the socio-economic aspect of the UUP paper but repeated that the decommissioning hurdle must be surmounted to allow for inclusive dialogue.

"The thrust of the UUP document appears to reject any prospect of inclusive talks even following an unequivocal and credible ceasefire", the spokesman said. "We believe that implicitly they reject the implementation of the Mitchell report in all its aspects as a basis for decommissioning without proposing a credible achievable alternative."