The Weston Park talks aimed at saving the Good Friday Agreement have ended for the day, but will resume on Friday. The SDLP delegation was the first to leave. Party leader, John Hume, said that discussions had been intensive, but that there had been no breakthrough. He said that the talks would resume on Friday. However, his deputy, Seamus Mallon, said that while there had been some progress on policing and normalisation, there had been no progress on the issue of illegal arms.
It is understood the Sinn Féin leaders, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, had face-to-face discussions with the Taoiseach and British Prime Minister this afternoon. The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, left earlier to attend another engagement.
The Taoiseach said that they had worked hard to try and find solutions and hopefully they could. Tony Blair said that they were going to work with complete determination and some hope that they could find a way through; all parties to the talks accepted there was no alternative to the Good Friday Agreement. The indications this afternoon were that all sides would be back after the 12 July celebrations. Sources close to the talks have told RTÉ News that Friday will be "make or break" day.
The discussions entered a third, unscheduled session today after being adjourned without agreement around midnight. Although Sinn Féin leaders described yesterday's face-to-face talks with the Ulster Unionists as positive, David Trimble said this morning that there had been no progress on decommissioning. Mr Trimble criticised the Sinn Féin President for leaving the talks for a time to attend an engagement in London.
However, Gerry Adams rejected Mr Trimble's arguments, saying that both Sinn Féin ministers and the main negotiators were there. Mr Adams told reporters that the party was prepared to engage and deal with serious issues, but he insisted that the central figure was Mr Blair.
Mr Adams expressed optimism that the Northern peace process would work in the long term despite the fact that limited progress was being made in the current round-table talks. Speaking on Morning Ireland, he said that he hoped the British government would put forward concrete proposals at today's session of the talks.
The SDLP's Seamus Mallon said that there had been some engagement, but everybody knew the real issues. He said that parties with responsibilities would have to address them seriously if the talks are to go anywhere. Irish government sources said that there was some serious engagement, despite the air of pessimism outside.
