Bertie Ahern North 'not a done deal'
Intensive talks are continuing this evening between David Trimble and Gerry Adams. The Taoiseach has warned that while he welcomes the talks, no one should underestimate the challenges that lie ahead.
Speaking after the annual Fianna Fáil Wolfe Tone Commemoration at Bodenstown, in Dublin, Mr Ahern said there were at least three outstanding difficulties and that last May the participants in the process had come to within - as he termed it - fifty minutes of a historic breakthrough and then it all fell apart.
His comments came amid renewed hopes for the resumption of devolved powers.
Earlier, Government ministers welcomed a speech by the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, in which he said Republicans must demonstrate a commitment to ending paramilitarism for good.
But he also conceded that political progress in the North could proceed without IRA decommissioning being completed immediately.
His comments were also received well by Sinn Féin.
Speaking at his party conference yesterday, Mr Trimble said that what was needed was a sense that paramilitarism was coming to an end soon.
He insisted that the decommissioning of weapons, an end to paramilitary violence and the winding up of paramilitary organisations had to take place.
Mr Trimble told the conference in Armagh there could be no excuses for paramilitary violence such as 'internal house-keeping' and that foot-dragging on decommissioning and on commitments to peace and democracy could not be tolerated.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week programme, Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen emphasised need for the cessation of all paramilitary activity, saying it was corrosive to the process.
He also stated that any agreement must be seen as a collective endeavour and not just an agreement between certain parties.
