Ahern to press Blair to move on Joint Declaration proposals

The Taoiseach will press the British Prime Minister to implement some of the proposals set out in yesterday's Joint Declaration by the two governments, when Mr Blair visits Dublin on Tuesday.

Mr Ahern yesterday expressed strong disapproval of the British decision to postpone the North's Assembly elections until the autumn, while acknowledging that the IRA's unpublished statement to the two governments on its intentions contained "important ambiguity".

Despite the failure of the IRA to produce a sufficiently clear commitment to end all paramilitary activity, Mr Ahern said "an enormous amount" of the Joint Declaration could be implemented very quickly, even without an overall political agreement.

The Declaration, which the governments originally hoped would be part of a deal involving an unambigious IRA commitment that its activities were at at end, proposes a comprehensive list of "acts of completion".

Many of them are changes long sought by nationalists from the British government.

They include the repeal of the British government power to suspend the North's political institutions, a two-year programme of "security normalisation", moves towards giving power over policing and justice to the Northern Executive and Assembly, plans to resolve the cases of those "on-the-run" and a new, independent body to monitor the carrying out of commitments to end paramilitary activity.

However, in a clear signal that the postponement decision will not damage British/Irish relations, Mr Ahern said: "While we are disappointed today we will dust ourselves off and get on with it next weekThe strength and critical importance of the partnership between the two governments will endure."

Senior British sources echoed the suggestion that the disagreement would not cause long-term damage. "I think while Dublin would have preferred elections they also realised that calling elections was not necessarily a good option either," said one source.

Mr Ahern and Mr Blair were at one in acknowledging the necessity of a clear, unambiguous IRA commitment to end paramilitary activity.

Mr Ahern said yesterday that from the outset "it was clear that ambiguous or subtle drafting would not cut it".

Mr Blair announced the postponement yesterday, saying agreement had not been reached because of the IRA's "point-blank refusal" specifically to rule out activities listed in the Joint Declaration, including training, targeting, punishment attacks and acquiring new weapons.

An election now would make agreement afterwards even more difficult, he said, reflecting concerns that rejectionist unionists would make gains in an early poll.

However, Sinn Féin reacted furiously to the postponement, with the party president, Mr Gerry Adams, accusing Mr Blair of operating a "unionist veto".

The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, said postponement of the elections was inevitable.

However, the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said the cancellation "demonstrates the political cowardice of the Ulster Unionist Party, and is an affront to democracy".

Mr Ahern and Mr Blair will discuss what proposals can be implemented quickly when they meet at Farmleigh in Dublin on Tuesday.

A London source said the proposals on "on-the-runs" and the devolution of justice and policing would be put on hold as they were conditional on the IRA clearly demonstrating its war was over.

Any "normalisation" which threatened security would also remain on hold.

• A spokesman for the US Department of State said last night the US understood "the factors that led Prime Minister Blair to make the difficult decision to postpone the scheduled May elections.