Cowen And Brown Hold Crisis Talks In London

As we went to press on Monday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was scheduled to meet his Taoiseach Brian Cowen for talks about the situation in the North at Downing Street.

Talks between the DUP and Sinn Féin on the devolution of policing and justice powers ended in acrimony last week.

On Saturday, Sinn Féin said Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness would seek a "critical and defining" meeting with Peter Robinson over the issue.

Mr Cowen said the two governments had a responsibility to help resolve it. "Obviously the ideal situation here is for both Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister and the first minister Peter Robinson coming to agreement on these outstanding issues that have to be resolved and working with the other parties who are involved in the process as well."

"The governments have a responsibility as guarantors of the agreement to ensure that we get the agreement implemented," the Taoiseach said.

"I'll be discussing the matter further with the British prime minister to get this matter resolved as it's important for the people of Northern Ireland."

The DUP has said it would be ready to move forward on Monday.

The party's Jeffrey Donaldson said: "I think it's time that they (Sinn Féin) calmed down a bit and let's engage to resolve the outstanding issues.  We remain at the table ready and willing to discuss those issues and move the process forward."

Mr Donaldson said that Sinn Féin hadn't turned up for talks "on a number of occasions" during the past week.

However, Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly accused the DUP of going into talks with preconditions.

"The DUP have made a precondition of sorting out these contentious parades, the whole parades issue," he said.

"They are saying unless we get a predetermined outcome to talks around the issue of parading, the policing and justice will not happen."

However, the DUP's Sammy Wilson said that unless the issue of parades was addressed it would act as "a poison within the system."

The leader of the Alliance Party, David Ford, acknowledged it was time for the British and Irish governments to intervene.

However, he said the local parties should be able to sort matters out and opposed the convening of so called "hothouse talks" outside the North.

A Downing Street spokesman said Monday afternoon's talks were "part of ongoing discussions on Northern Ireland."

The Prime Minister and the Taoiseach talk regularly by phone and were pleased to have the opportunity to meet face-to-face, he said.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the meeting between Mr McGuinness and the North's First Minister, Peter Robinson, would be "defining and critical."

But he stopped short of saying the party was pulling Mr McGuinness out of the power-sharing Stormont Executive.

Sinn Féin and the DUP - the two biggest political parties in the North - have been arguing for months over the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont.

Sinn Féin want the completion of devolution to happen as soon as possible, but the DUP have argued that there must be "community confidence" before the powers are put in the hands of local politicians.

If Sinn Féin was to decide that Martin McGuinness should resign, the joint nature of the roles of first and deputy first ministers would mean that Peter Robinson would also be forced out of office.

If there were no agreed re-appointments to the posts within seven days, an assembly election would have to be called.