Mo Mowlam

Government Talks to Ulster

Meetings have been arranged with groups in Belfast and Londonderry, two of the marching hotspots.

Last week, Ms Mowlam met Nationalist groups and residents' associations in the towns where marches are due to take place. Her meetings this week are seen as an attempt to correct the perception that, in meeting the Nationalists first, Ms Mowlam is biased against the Loyalists.

Within the last couple of weeks trouble flared at a march in Dunloy when an Orange Order march was stopped by the RUC outside the town. The discussions are an attempt to avoid a repetition of the violence at Drumcree on June 6 last year that brought Northern Ireland to a standstill.

The Government has opened channels of discussion in the hope of tying Sinn Fein down to a pledge to renounce violence. On the other hand, Sinn Fein will be looking for concessions from the Government over its entry into peace talks.

This is the seond time the two sides have met in recent weeks, although at the first meeting it is thought that no more progress was made than a statement of policy and intention by either side.

The Government's current stance allows Loyalist parties into talks where Nationalist organisations are excluded.

Alliance leader Lord Alderdice has asked that, in light of the increase of recent Loyalist violence, the Government reviews the policy in order to avoid using double standards.