NORTHERN IRELAND/UK: SITUATION UPDATE

(21 Jul 1997) English/Nat British prime minister Tony Blair appears to have kept the Northern Ireland peace process on track... for the time being. He and David Trimble, the leader of the pro-British Ulster Unionist Party, held showdown talks in Downing Street Monday on a key issue - the surrender of Irish Republican Army weapons. Trimble says he won't abandon peace negotiations just yet even though he can't agree with London and Dublin on when the weapons should be 'decommissioned'. The meeting came just 24 hours after the IRA declared a cease fire, enabling its political wing Sinn Fein to join peace negotiations in September. The Northern Ireland peace process took a small step forward on Monday, with the political wing of the I-R-A opening an office at the site of multi-party talks in Belfast. Just 24 hours after the IRA declared a new cease fire, its political wing, Sinn Fein, turned up at Stormont to get its office up and running. Sinn Fein was blocked from attending the talks that began on June the 10th, 1996, because the IRA had ended its cease fire four months earlier with a bomb in London that killed two civilians. The symbolism of the moment was not lost on Sinn Fein who sent Gerry Kelly along to check out the offices. Kelly is a legendary IRA figure convicted in one of the first major car-bombing campaigns in London in 1972. Inside Stormont on Monday, the Sinn Fein Chairman Mitchel McLaughlin was keen to build on this small but significant development. SOUNDBITE: "Though it's one small step for humankind, I believe that it is significant for itself that we are setting up the office today and we will continue, through this, to develop contacts with the other parties. I expect we will meet some of them today but we will continue to develop that in the weeks ahead." SUPER CAPTION: Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Fein Chairman But almost as soon as Sinn Fein entered Stormont, the three members of a small hard- line unionist party walked out. They are furious that Sinn Fein has not been made to commit to a timetable for decommissioning its arms. Robert McCartney, the leader of the United Kingdom Unionists said they would "not negotiate with anyone who supports violence" or anyone associated with a group that retains its weapons. SOUNDBITE: "I have now reached the position where it is clear that no matter what happens, the determination of the British government is to include Sinn Fein/IRA in these proceedings and that I've finally come to the decision my presence here, indeed the presence of any democratic party is merely to afford a democratic veneer to what is a very, very un-democratic process." SUPER CAPTION: Robert McCartney, Leader of the UK Unionists He and his party vowed not to return unless Sinn Fein was barred again. Sinn Fein has a six-week "quarantine period" before it enters the talks on September the 15th, during which the IRA must show the cease fire is solid. Decommissioning of arms has been and continues to be one of the main sticking points for the IRA's inclusion in the multi-party talks. And it was decommissioning that was top of the agenda for the emergency talks held between the leader of the main unionist party - David Trimble and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He's under intense pressure to accept the government's formula that would allow all parties, including the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein, to enter peace talks. But hard-liners within his pro-British Ulster Unionist party say proposals for the IRA to start decommissioning its weapons are too vague. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...