Ahern, left, and Blair said they would be willing to resume talks to keep the peace process alive

March 31, 1999
Web posted at: 12:13 p.m. EST (1713 GMT)

In this story: 'IRA guns are silent' Keeping a miracle alive RELATED STORIES, SITES

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- The prime ministers of Ireland and Great Britain left Belfast Wednesday after three days of fruitless talks with Northern Ireland politicians aimed at rescuing the beleaguered peace process.

But Tony Blair of Britain and Brian Ahern of Ireland vowed to keep a peace agreement from unraveling over a dispute about disarmament of the Irish Republican Army.

"We can make it happen but it does require a real sense of goodwill and a real sense of urgency and, above all, a sense of fundamental responsibility to the people here in Northern Ireland to provide them with the future they need," Blair said.

The Ulster Unionists, Northern Ireland's largest Protestant party, insists that the IRA begin giving up its weapons before the outlawed group's political party Sinn Fein can take two seats in the newly established government.

'IRA guns are silent'

The Good Friday peace accords, signed last year, call for disarmament by May 2000, but the IRA has repeatedly said it would never completely disarm.

Blair and Ahern left for their respective capitals within an hour after the IRA released an annual policy statement that had no mention of disarmament.

"We have contributed in a real and meaningful way to the creation of a climate which would facilitate the search for a durable peace agreement," the IRA statement said. "IRA guns are silent."

Sinn Fein Chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said the omission was a good sign in light of the group's past insistence that it would never disarm.

But Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said it was not enough.

"We have not seen any sign of the republican movement committing itself in a realistic way to carrying out its share of the agreement," Trimble said. "That is the problem."

Keeping a miracle alive

The accord envisages a new system of power-sharing with a Protestant-Catholic government, some home-rule and links with Britain and Ireland to help end a conflict which has lasted three decades and cost more than 3,600 lives.

Hailed as a political miracle, it addressed opposing interests of a Protestant majority which wants to stay British and a Catholic minority which suffered decades of discrimination and sees the British-ruled province as part of Ireland.

Despite deep misgivings among some over the accord's early release program for imprisoned IRA guerrillas, more than 70 percent of the electorate is reportedly behind the pact, making frustration high at the slow pace of implementation.

Britain has set this week running up to the Good Friday anniversary of the accord as a final deadline for implementation in an attempt to force it through.

The IRA has been observing a cease-fire since July 1997.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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