McGuinness says onus on all sides to honour commitments

Sinn Fein's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, who is due to return as Education Minister in the restored Executive in the North, has said the onus now on all sides to honour commitments under the Good Friday Agreement. He also said there had been strong reaction among republicans to comments yesterday by the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, about the need to "house train" them. Mr McGuinness called on the British government to fulfil commitments on implementing the Patton proposals and on demilitarisation.

Also speaking on This Week, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen has said that there are still immense challenges ahead following the decision of the Ulster Unionists to re-enter government with Sinn Fein. He said devolution will work only if the Good Friday Agreement is implemented in the right spirit, and in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Speaking earlier this morning on a television interview, Mr McGuinness said Mr Trimble can bolster the peace process and his role within it, by showing decisive leadership against anti-Agreement unionists. While welcoming Mr Trimble's narrow victory at yesterday's Ulster Unionist Council meeting, he said they had waited too long for pro-agreement unionists to face down those who rejected the agreement and who wanted to destroy it.

The anti-agreement element among unionists have expressed their disappointment at the outcome of yesterday's vote. Ulster Unionist MP Willie Ross has described Mr Trimble's victory as the worst possible result for unionists. Speaking on Sky News, Mr Ross said that he was sorry the 47/53% vote was not the other way around and that he did not believe the system will work in the long. He said that there will have to be a visible destruction of terrorist weapons on a large scale before people in Northern Ireland will be prepared to believe what the IRA are saying.

Stormont Assembly member Peter Weir told This Week that he was disappointed with yesterday's vote and that he did not think the Ulster Unionist Party should return to power-sharing without the start of decommissioning. He also said that the policies the unionist party has pursued have not achieved what they set to gain - decommissioning and a government based purely on democracy - and that he was highly sceptical that the Hillsborough deal would secure these aims.

Meanwhile Church leaders in the North have expressed hope of a final end to the violence. In an interview with the BBC, the Primate of Ireland, Archbishop Robin Eames urged politicians on both sides of the divide to prove that violence would not return. He said devolution should be tested. While the President of the Methodist Church, the Rev Dr Kenneth Wilson said David Trimble and Gerry Adams had stretched their parties considerably to move the peace process forward.

Following yesterday's vote by the Ulster Unionist Part's ruling council to re-enter government with Sinn Fein, the Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson has signed the restoration order to lift the suspension on the North's Assembly from midnight on Monday. The move paves the way for a meeting of the executive on Thursday and the Northern Assembly is scheduled to meet on June 5th. Yesterday the UUP's 862-strong council voted to accept the Hillsborough proposals, tabled by the UUP leadership, by a majority of 53% (459) to 47% (403). It is still unclear if the DUP's two ministers will return to the executive.