Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is to meet British prime minister Tony Blair in London today to discuss how to overcome obstacles to restoring devolution as a number of DUP politicians insisted there could be no prior agreement on when policing and justice would be transferred to the Northern Executive.
PSNI chief constable, Sir Hugh Orde, responding to an article by Mr Adams in yesterday's An Phoblacht, said he was prepared to hold face-to-face meetings with the Sinn Féin president.
DUP leader Dr Ian Paisley is due to hold a strategy meeting today with Assembly members, MPs and the party's sole MEP, Jim Allister, in Co Antrim today - a meeting which is also expected to be used to address tensions within the party over the St Andrews Agreement.
The British and Irish governments are attempting to devise a formula that would resolve the standoff between Sinn Féin and the DUP over when and whether responsibility for policing and justice would be devolved to the Northern Executive. This, and the subject of MI5, are expected to be the main issues on the Adams/Blair agenda today.
Sinn Féin is also expected to decide today whether it will participate in the new transitional Assembly which is meeting again at Stormont on Monday.
Three DUP politicians - North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds and Assembly members Edwin Poots and Ian Paisley jnr - yesterday issued statements insisting the party would not provide Sinn Féin with a date for the devolution of justice and policing powers.
This was in response to Mr Adams's An Phoblacht article where he said he was prepared to speak directly with Sir Hugh Orde and where he repeated his willingness to propose an ard- fheis on policing, but based on a timetable for the transfer of policing powers.
Mr Dodds repeated that such a DUP commitment would not be forthcoming, although he moderated his previous position that such devolution would not happen in a "political lifetime". Sinn Féin now had a "long way to go" before the DUP would consider such a move.
He said Sinn Féin, "alone of all the parties in Northern Ireland, are demanding that before they can support the police they must have some kind of control or influence at an early date. No other party has ever demanded or been granted this.
"Sinn Féin have a long way to go yet before they can even begin to earn the confidence and trust of decent people that would allow us to contemplate devolution of policing and justice," said Mr Dodds.
Meanwhile, Sir Hugh said he was ready to hold direct talks with Mr Adams. "My people have got to be able to talk to their people and at every level openly about all the issues that people are concerned about," he told yesterday's Belfast Telegraph.
"Policing isn't political. It is about people who need help. All I ask is that my people are given the opportunity to protect all communities. Don't judge us by the past. Judge us by what we do now. That's all I ask," he added.
Sinn Féin and the SDLP oppose MI5 having any role in general or "civic" policing and distrust British government assurances that the secret agency's role will be limited to UK "national security".
Sir Hugh said that "national security is about international terrorism and if people think the island of Ireland is immune from international terrorism then they need to wise up".
