N Ireland peace talks in final phase

BELFAST, March 22: The search for peace in Northern Ireland enters a crucial final phase on Monday, when politicians in the British-ruled pr...

BELFAST, March 22: The search for peace in Northern Ireland enters a crucial final phase on Monday, when politicians in the British-ruled province resume negotiations in Belfast, with only three weeks to thrash out a deal.

Representatives of the pro-British Protestant majority and the large pro-Irish Roman Catholic minority have been given time until mid-April to chalk out a compromise to end 29 years of violence which has claimed over 3,200 lives.

Despite continuing violence by extremists on both sides, the fragile peace process is still on track, with all key participants on board, including

Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

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Sinn Fein, said late Saturday that it would rejoin the talks. "The party still has reservations with the talks process but the party will continue to make its contribution to the process of change," a spokesman said.

The radical Catholic republican party was suspended for two weeks from the talks on February 20 after the IRA was implicated in twomurders that violated a ceasefire declared in July.

Over the weekend, Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam said, "I believe we are close to a settlement. We have the best opportunity for a hundred years and we should grasp it."

"It’s time to move from talks to decisions," she added.

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London and Dublin, who have prodded and cajoled Northern Ireland political leaders into forging a compromise, want to hold a referenda in both the North and South of Ireland on the peace agreement in late May.

In a blueprint for a solution to the Northern Ireland troubles, the two governments have suggested establishing a semi-autonomous Belfast parliament, as well as a cross-border council for the province bringing together ministers from North and south.

The power-sharing compromise would give Northern Ireland a degree of autonomy that maintained a clear link to London but acknowledged a role to be played by Dublin.

But obstacles remain in the path of a deal to reconcile the Protestant community’s desire tomaintain British rule in Northern Ireland and the Catholics’ aspirations for a united Ireland.