A fresh round of talks to get the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive back into action before elections scheduled for May will take place on March 3rd, the Government has said.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, will make final preparations for the talks during a meeting London on February 27th, sources indicated last night.
"Nobody believes that this will be done overnight. We will be working on this over the next few weeks," said a Government source last night following a downbeat assessment by Sinn Féin of Wednesday's Hillsborough talks.
In the run-up to the talks, the Government privately insisted that the Northern parties would have to indicate their real bottom lines, although Sinn Féin is clearly resisting following this course.
The president of Sinn Féin, Mr Gerry Adams, yesterday repeatedly insisted that actions to deal with policing, criminal justice and human rights could only be taken by the two governments.
In a blunt message to Dublin and London, he said: "If you want this to happen, then do the work. You can only make that judgment when you see what is coming forward."
The British Prime Minister had, he said, acknowledged last November that the British government had not implemented all of its commitments under the Good Friday agreement.
Because of the advance speculation, he said he had expected to see some concrete proposals from the two governments.
"But we do not have substance. The time is reducing to weeks and there are concerns about the management."
However, he accepted Mr Blair's good faith: "I think he is decent on the issue. Tony Blair has done more than anyone in a century to the benefit of people on this island and on his own. But he has to bend his will."
The demilitarisation and criminal justice moves are no more than "normal democratic rights", but they require "a huge amount of frame" from Mr Blair because of opposition to change from British security figures, Mr Adams said.
