THE achievement of lasting peace and political agreement in Northern Ireland has been described as a top priority by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke.
Mr Burke and Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, were meeting ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions resident in Dublin. The Northern peace talks had made little progress so far, Mr Burke said, mainly because of disagreement about the decommissioning paramilitary weapons.
Together with the British government, they had proposed what they believed to be an acceptable way ahead based on the Mitchell Report, which envisaged a compromise under which progress on arms decommissioning and on political matters would be mutually reinforcing,