Trimble and Adams pass a milestone

THE NORTHERN Ireland peace process passed another milestone yesterday with the first delegate meetings between Sinn Fein and David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party.

While Mr Trimble and the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, have held meetings in the former's capacity as First Minister-designate, this was a formal party-to-party occasion that appears to be without precedent in Northern Ireland's history.

Afterwards it was reported that little headway was made on key issues, in particular that of IRA arms decommissioning. But the atmosphere was described as businesslike, which is perhaps better than might have been expected for an encounter between two parties that have spent decades denouncing each other.

Mr Trimble's delegation included Ken Maginnis MP, the party security spokesman, whose forthright style is said to have given rise to some tense moments. Participants said the Unionist MP John Taylor had played a useful part in defusing these.

Mr Trimble said later: "We hope the republican movement does realise the opportunity that is here, and does realise the obligation that the [Good Friday] Agreement does place on them in the process to decommission their weapons. We hope that will take place in the next few weeks, but I cannot say that anything that did take place this morning gave me any reassurance."

Mr Adams said: "Irish republicans and Ulster Unionists have to get it into our heads that we are on the one side. This is about pro-Agreement and anti-Agreement parties. The majority of the people on this island have voted in support of the Agreement. We are wedded to seeing it implemented in all its aspects."

Mr Adams said he had asked for further meetings; Mr Trimble said he could not tell at this stage whether there would be more. The parties who support the Good Friday Agreement appear to have taken great heart from Tuesday's 77 to 29 Assembly vote in favour of new government structures for Northern Ireland, though the decommissioning issue re-mains unresolved.

Mr Trimble later went from Belfast to London. Yesterday evening he met Tony Blair in Downing Street, where earlier this week the Prime Minister met Mr Adams. In Belfast there is now a sense that the political pace is quickening.

Sinn Fein also met a delegation yesterday from the Presbyterian church for the first meeting between the two bodies. Afterwards the Presbyterian moderator, the Rev John Dixon, described decommissioning as both a moral issue and a political necessity.

He added: "We recognise there is a phenomenal gulf of trust between everybody in this whole situation. We have been pleading for decommissioning as a trust-building exercise with the Unionist community, just as we have seen things like the release of prisoners for those in the republican community."

Mr Dixon said he had no reason not to take republicans at their word on the peace process, but added: "We will look for actions to demonstrate that."