Talks continue to restore Assembly

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and Ulster Unionist leader
David Trimble are meeting again today as part of a 'network' of
exchanges aimed at reviving the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Adams, who also held talks with Mr Trimble on Tuesday, said
the talks with Mr Trimble were arguably "the most important
part" of the current talks process.

"They are necessary discussions at this time and we will
continue with them until we hopefully come to some
conclusions. It's work in progress."

Negotiations are centring on the full and final implementation
of the Good Friday Agreement as part of a deal to restore the
Belfast Assembly and power-sharing government in the Six
Counties.

"There is always a concern when the media gets itself into a
frenzy and it is usually about republicans," said Adams.
"There is a lot of stuff to be done by the two Governments.
It's there in public terms what they have not done.

"We all engaged for some time around how much of the Good
Friday Agreement was complete or not complete. There was then
a joint declaration which was actually longer than the Good
Friday Agreement which showed the catch-up that they had to
do.

"There are parts of the joint declaration which are outside
the terms of the Agreement. It is a very difficult issue for
republicans in terms of this so-called international
monitoring commission. There is the issue of the unionists
where they have in the past either walked out or threatened to
walk out of the institutions, with the result that they have
been pulled down.

"So there is a collectivity about all of this and we just need
to have a sense of that. The governments need to be reasonable
and rational about what is do-able at this time."