Blair to tell Trimble: don't wreck deal

The Prime Minister will today appeal to David Trimble not to wreck the Belfast peace talks by offering the Ulster Unionist leader assurances that the IRA will be required to hand over weapons while Sinn Fein is at the negotiating table.

In what will be a symbolic breakthrough for them, Sinn Fein will today be allowed inside the Stormont talks building for the first time. Previously, the party has been turned away from Castle Building in Stormont complex in east Belfast where the multi-party talks are held.

Gerry Adams said he would not be present, but that his delegates would be seeking bilateral discussions with whoever would talk to them.

Tony Blair's plea for peace at a meeting with Mr Trimble at Downing Street will be coupled with details of the Government's plans for ensuring the decommissioning does not turn into the sham that the Unionists fear.

David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, said last night he was ready to talk to Sinn Fein and urged other Unionists to do the same. "I don't think we should get hung up on the gun because frankly it's a decommissioning of the minds that we require," he said.

But Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said last night he would block the decommissioning proposal when it is voted on next Wednesday. "We would not take part in a precess with those who are wedded to violence," he said.

Mo Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, plans to meet Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, by the end of the week to discuss its role in the peace process.

Mr Blair will tell Mr Trimble that John de Chastelain, a former head of the Canadian defence forces, will be appointed before the end of July to head the international body which will oversee decommissioning of weapons. Mr Blair will guarantee that the body will be up and running before 15 September, the day fixed for the first substantive session of talks which Sinn Fein will be allowed to attend, following the restoration of the ceasefire by the IRA.

It remained unclear last night whether the assurances will be enough to persuade Mr Trimble not to wreck the talks. The Unionists, who have accused the Government of trying to fudge the issue of disarming the IRA, have submitted amendments demanding "substantive disarmament" from the start of the talks and that the weapons hand-over should be completed by May 1998, the deadline imposed by the British and Irish governments for bringing the talks to a conclusion and putting the proposals to the people in referendums, North and South.

Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, yesterday challenged all those seeking peace to work for it. "It's so easy to be negative, we could all sit back and say if we all do nothing this ceasefire will break down," he said.

Last night, the British Government was still unwilling to accept the Unionist amendments. Unless Mr Blair can persuade Mr Trimble to back down, the Unionists will vote down the decommissioning plans on Wednesday, effectively scuppering the round-table talks. Mr Blair's colleagues privately fear the talks could be dealt a lethal blow by the Unionists on Wednesday, although John Taylor, Mr Trimble's deputy, raised the possibility of continuing bilateral meetings with the Government.

Mr Blair is likely to remind Mr Trimble that people in Ulster will blame the Unionists for throwing away the chance of peace, but the fall-back position for the two governments is to press ahead with plans for twin referendums next year.