Tony Blair: "Need for some give and take"

PM "Determined to Solve Northern Ireland's Troubles"

Tony Blair tells the Commons that the majority of people in Ulster "want and deserve" peace

The Prime Minister's remarks were shortly followed by an announcement from the Ministry of Defence that hundreds more troops are to be sent to Northern Ireland; four hundred from the Stafford Regiment will arrive by the weekend.

Hume wants a moratorium on marches

John Hume speaks to the BBC after his meeting with Tony Blair on Wednesday evening

Mr Blair said: "I'm going to carry on searching for a solution and I believe if there was true goodwill on all sides and a little bit of give and take and understanding and reason, a solution could be found."

Earlier, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mo Mowlam, also took questions. She said it would be possible for Sinn Fein to join the multi-party talks only if there were an unequivocal restoration of the IRA ceasefire "shown in word and deed".

A Labour MP, Margaret Moran, asked what action she intended to take "to prevent a repetition of the violence and disruption which we have seen over this weekend".

Dr Mowlam replied: "Neither side will be able to get the decision they want unless we can reach some kind of accommodation between the two.

"It is only by accommodation and negotiation that, whether it be last weekend or parades in the weekends ahead, that negotiations will be the way we can move peacefully forward."

Trimble: talks are "bankrupt" as far as Sinn Fein is concerned

David Trimble argues that peace on the streets is the key concern

Eddie McGrady, the SDLP MP for South Down, said that forcing through the Orange parade in Portadown on Sunday had been "a death blow" for the peace process. His colleague, Seamus Mallon, declared that the role of government was to confront such threats of force, rather than "trampling on the legitimate rights of those against whom the threats have been made."

In response, Dr Mowlam said she did not accept the premise that 'might is right'. She said: "Right is right, and we will stick to that."

The violence that had followed the Portadown march was described by the Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Andrew Mackay, as a premeditated attempt by the IRA to wreck the talks process.

The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, said that as far as Sinn Fein was concerned, the talks process was "bankrupt". The priority, he said, was to maintain peace on the streets of Belfast.