Mandelson to try again to revive Northern peace process

Moves to revive the peace process begin again today, with the Northern Secretary, Mr Mandelson, expected to hold separate meetings…

Moves to revive the peace process begin again today, with the Northern Secretary, Mr Mandelson, expected to hold separate meetings in Belfast with the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, and the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams.

Mr Mandelson will be trying to inject some forward movement into the process, following his suspension of the new Northern institutions over two weeks ago. He will be urging Sinn Fein to put the "blame game" behind and go forward. There will be a similar message for Mr Trimble about the need to show willingness to move forward.

It will be the first meeting between the Northern Secretary and Sinn Fein since their very difficult encounter after the suspension. A republican source said they would be in listening mode: the Northern Secretary had brought down the institutions, and Sinn Fein wanted to know what would happen next. "We will listen to whether Mr Mandelson has yet managed to concoct an answer," the source said.

Sinn Fein wants the institutions reinstated, but a senior Dublin political source said this was unlikely without movement on the weapons issue. While efforts this month to resolve the impasse were unsuccessful, the source said, "the package will be much the same." The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, is expected to become involved in meetings this week.

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Dublin still places considerable store by the last report from Gen de Chastelain's decommissioning body, which said the IRA had been prepared to initiate a process to put arms "beyond use" and that this commitment might have the potential to enable the commission to fulfil its mandate. A Dublin source said that if a way to restore the institutions was not found "within a week or so", the implications would be serious. A Sinn Fein source said: "This phase, with no institutions and no progress, could go on for months. What we have got to try and do is make things happen: put pressure on Mandelson to reinstate the institutions, with no real sign he is prepared to do that."

Most of the sessions at Sinn Fein's internal conference in Dublin City University yesterday were closed to the media, but there were few external indications of serious criticism of the leadership.

The speech by the party leader was interrupted by applause from time to time, and he was given a standing ovation by delegates at the end. Mr Adams was applauded when he said Sinn Fein was not accepting sole responsibility for resolving the weapons issue and that the party leadership could not be expected to secure an IRA surrender where the British army had failed.

Mr Adams told delegates that if the Belfast Agreement was lost, a new pact would be negotiated some time in the future. A Sinn Fein source later said attention was focused on constructive means for supporters to vent their frustration.

Meanwhile, the proposal for a Day of Reconciliation, which was revived in the peace process in recent weeks, appeared to be losing its appeal. Republicans played it down; a British government source conceded it could be a "means to an end", although they stressed that greater clarity was needed on the IRA's position in general.

A tentative proposal to hold a series of discussions in a location in the United States, possibly chaired by Senator George Mitchell, was seen as premature by senior figures in the process. But there was some hope that the latest round of meetings might succeed in generating forward movement. The discussions will continue in the US during St Patrick's week.