North talks to switch venue today

Secret talks between the Northern Ireland parties shift venue this morning as the Mitchell review battles to evade the media …

Secret talks between the Northern Ireland parties shift venue this morning as the Mitchell review battles to evade the media spotlight.

Irish officials, as well as delegations from the SDLP, the Alliance Party, the PUP and UDP and the Women's Coalition, are expected to join the negotiations this morning at Lancaster House after yesterday's day-long session involving the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein under Senator George Mitchell's chairmanship at the residence of the US ambassador to the UK.

It is believed Senator Mitchell intends the talks to continue tomorrow. While party sources said in advance they did not expect significant papers or drafts to be produced this week, the talks will be crucial to Senator Mitchell's judgment as to whether a deal is possible to break the devolution/decommissioning impasse, and so save the Belfast Agreement.

While all sides last night were formally deferring to the senator, and expressing their "determined" approach to the talks, there were clear continuing doubts as to whether Sinn Fein or the IRA will be prepared to give the clear commitment on decommissioning demanded by Mr David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, at his party conference last Saturday.

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Mr Trimble and other party sources have made it clear that it is only in the context of such a commitment - to the delivery of actual decommissioning within the timeframe originally envisaged in the agreement - that the UUP would consider the sequencing arrangements which might permit the prior creation of the power-sharing executive.

While there was no official confirmation of any of yesterday's arrangements, it is understood only the UUP and Sinn Fein delegations were present for the opening session of this stage of the review.

Both sides showed remarkable determination to follow Senator Mitchell's strictures, refusing to confirm even where they were, or the size of their delegations - despite the fact that a number of Ulster Unionists were filmed taking a stroll in the garden, and that Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness were visible from an upstairs window.