DUP 'positive' ahead of Murphy meeting tomorrow

The DUP are not a party of wreckers its deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson said ahead of tomorrow's meeting with Northern Ireland…

The DUP are not a party of wreckers its deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson said ahead of tomorrow's meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Paul Murphy.

Mr Robinson repeated the party's refusal to share power with Sinn Féin until the IRA stands down but insisted the DUP have "a positive agenda".

Talks between the British government and Northern Ireland's political parties are expected to intensify as efforts are made to restore devolution as quickly as possible.

The DUP will tell Mr Murphy that the Belfast Agreement is dead and a new deal must be thrashed out.

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Buoyant after becoming the largest party in the Stormont Assembly, the DUP is arguing that an agreement must be found that has the support of the majority of unionists as well as nationalists.

Mr Robinson said: "In a divided society we must have institutions and structures which both sections of our community can sign up to."

But ahead of the meeting, Mr Murphy has insisted that the fundamental principles of the Agreement - such as powersharing and consent - are not up for re-negotiation.

Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams, who said his party will return to Stormont on Monday, has called for the suspension of the Assembly to be lifted.

The leader of the SDLP Mr Mark Durkan has also called for restoration of the institutions as soon as possible.

Their demands were made as Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy held separate talks with the main pro-Agreement parties on yesterday to discuss the way forward in the wake of the Assembly election result.

With Dr Ian Paisley's anti-Agreement DUP capturing 30 seats and eclipsing the Mr David Trimble's Ulster Unionists as the largest pro-union party, the prospect of a swift return of devolution appears remote.

But the Northern Ireland Secretary insists the "fundamentals" of the agreement cannot be altered.

"Northern Ireland can only be governed by an accommodation between nationalists and unionists and that accommodation over the last five or six years has been hugely successful," he said.

Mr Trimble, who is facing the prospect of a leadership challenge, made no comment as he entered Hillsborough Castle in Co Down talks with Mr Murphy yesterday.

Earlier, he said it was a "huge overstatement" to say the Good Friday Agreement was dead. "There is still a majority of the population in favour of the Agreement," he added.