UUP go on offensive over St Andrews deal

The Ulster Unionists have attacked the Democratic Unionists today by urging voters not to be fooled by spin about the St Andrews…

The Ulster Unionists have attacked the Democratic Unionists today by urging voters not to be fooled by spin about the St Andrews Agreement.

A four-page insert by the party is published today in the Belfast Newsletterand will also appear in the Northern Ireland edition of the Daily Mirroron Saturday.

In the Ulster Unionists' four-page document, they accuse the DUP of switching position on the 1998 Belfast Agreement and signing up to its fundamental tenets, framework and institutions.

The UUP document accuses the DUP of agreeing to a cross-border parliamentary forum and all-Ireland civic forum and criticises plans for an Irish Language Act at Westminster that will put the language on an equal footing with English.

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Sir Reg Empey's party also insists that it wants an assembly capable of tackling real issues that matter to the people of Northern Ireland, such as health, education, the economy, the environment, housing, agriculture, public transport and the needs of victims of the Troubles.

Tomorrow has been set as the deadline by the British and Irish governments for responses to their proposals to revive power sharing.

The UUP's document was being published a day after the DUP deadline for public responses to the St Andrews agreement closed. The Rev Ian Paisley and his party have yet to indicate publicly whether they will follow Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's timetable leading to power sharing next March.

Sinn Féin and the SDLP have indicated they will embark on the timetable.

The DUP two weeks ago published its own analysis of the St Andrews Agreement in a document inserted into daily and weekly newspapers in Northern Ireland.