PETER ROBINSON and Martin McGuinness signalled some retreat from Downing Street diplomacy yesterday with the promise of more talks in Belfast next week on outstanding issues in the Northern Ireland devolution process.
Mr Robinson, the new DUP leader elected to succeed the Rev Ian Paisley as Northern Ireland's First Minister on Thursday, also repeated his desire to involve the other parties in talks about a lengthening agenda now topped by the highly sensitive questions of when and how to devolve policing and justice powers to the Stormont Assembly.
Mr Robinson spent his first full day in office in talks with his Sinn Féin partner, Deputy First Minister McGuinness, hosted by British prime minister Gordon Brown.
After some six hours inside Number 10, Mr Robinson emerged to say he had had "no meetings" with Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin about what he had earlier flagged the "internal Northern Ireland matters" under discussion.
Mr Martin side-stepped any possible controversy, telling reporters "this was fundamentally an engagement" between the two parties and stressing the ongoing role of the British and Irish governments as "facilitators".
However, sources confirmed that the Minister and the Irish Government strongly supported Sinn Féin's view that yesterday's high-profile engagement was necessary to focus on the work still to be done following the change in the DUP leadership, and in light of the circumstances surrounding Dr Paisley's earlier than intended retirement from office.
With some DUP members in Belfast reportedly anxious about any resumption of high-level negotiations, Mr Robinson said he believed "an awful lot" of what was done in London yesterday "ought to have been done in Belfast".
Describing it nonetheless as "a fairly good day", the First Minister stressed "it wasn't a day for getting into negotiations or great detail", while suggesting "there will be some issues" the parties might not be able to resolve.
Advocating the involvement of the other parties, Mr Robinson urged: "Let's do it in Belfast. Let's include the other parties and make progress."
Mr McGuinness welcomed what he described as "a positive engagement" with the DUP leader "on a number of important issues" and agreed the next step was to "go back home and continue our discussions next week".
However, the Deputy First Minister also insisted that it had been "important" to come to Downing Street and secure the involvement of both governments to ensure that those discussions would proceed "with considerable urgency".
Declaring himself "satisfied with [ yesterday's] work", Mr McGuinness also said that he believed Mr Robinson "recognises the serious work to be done" between the two principal parties.
Asked about Mr Robinson's declared enthusiasm to involve the other smaller Assembly parties, Mr McGuinness agreed, while adding: "They must also acknowledge this is a serious business."
This apparent swipe at the rival SDLP came amid speculation that Sinn Féin might oppose any attempt to revive an earlier DUP proposal that could see policing and justice powers vested in a new ministry to be shared initially by the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists.