Paisley to meet Taoiseach in Dublin

Unionists and nationalists have been deadlocked over the future mechanisms for power-sharing in the North despite claims at Leeds Castle that a breakthrough on the issues of IRA disarmament and the ending of paramilitary activity has been achieved.

The DUP has clashed with the SDLP and Sinn Féin over plans to make power-sharing ministers more accountable to their cabinet colleagues and to the Stormont Assembly.

DUP sources said today’s discussions would focus on cross-border issues and proposals for how both administrations would cooperate through the British-Irish Council.

Today’s meeting also followed the Taoiseach's decision in the cabinet reshuffle yesterday to appoint Dermot Ahern as his new Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Dermot Ahern is well-known to many of Northern Ireland’s politicians, having worked with them during devolution through the North South Ministerial Council on cross-border initiatives.

Meanwhile Sinn Féin negotiators Mitchel McLaughlin and Martin Ferris arrived in the United States for a series of meetings, insisting they had come to lobby politicians there to defend the Good Friday Agreement from a DUP attack.

Mr McLaughlin, who was due to attend an address in New York tonight by US President George W Bush’s special envoy on Northern Ireland, Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, said: “This trip to the USA is about defending the Good Friday Agreement.

“The DUP cannot be allowed to continue to stall progress and forward movement. It is crucial that the two governments make this clear to the DUP and stop pandering to anti-agreement elements.”

Mr McLaughlin and Mr Ferris were also due to visit Washington DC, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston during their trip.