Prime ministers boost efforts to bolster Trimble's fortunes

Tony Blair last night urged his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, to throw his weight behind attempts to bolster the position of David Trimble against hardline critics in the Ulster Unionist leader's own party.

Tony Blair last night urged his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, to throw his weight behind attempts to bolster the position of David Trimble against hardline critics in the Ulster Unionist leader's own party.

The two prime ministers met at Downing Street amid mounting gloom over the Northern Ireland peace process.

They agreed to redouble efforts to keep it on track by holding further talks at the European Union summit in Biarritz on Friday and by meeting again in Dublin next week.

Peter Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who was at the talks in London, warned of the "considerable" problems facing Mr Trimble.

Disillusionment among Unionists should not be underestimated. He said: "Unless there is give and take, unless there is some flexibility... and we go some way to assist David Trimble with his difficulties, then we won't have David Trimble, we won't have the Unionists, and in that case we won't have the Good Friday Agreement, and that spells disaster for everyone in Northern Ireland."

Mr Trimble is under pressure from his internal critics to withdraw from the province's devolved government.

Concern has been expressed in the Ulster Unionist Party over the Government's plans to reform the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the need for progress on the decommissioning of terrorist weapons. Both issues were on the agenda of last night's Downing Street talks.

Mr Ahern said afterwards that the two leaders would embark on a programme of "intensive contacts" over the next few days to try to keep the Good Friday Agreement on course.

He acknowledged that Mr Trimble was under pressure but stressed that nationalists had their problems as well. "Of course we know of David Trimble's difficulties," he said. "There are combined difficulties. What we have to try to do is find combined solutions."

He warned that the Irish government was still not happy about the way the legislation on the RUC had been framed, and he had represented the "strong concerns" of Seamus Mallon, the deputy leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, to Mr Blair.

Mr Ahern added: "We want to see a police service in Northern Ireland that is acceptable to all parts of it," he said. There are still difficulties in the legislation."

But Mr Mandelson insisted that the basics of the Bill were sound and would not be changed. The minister said that while the RUC had to change, this would not be done in a way which "airbrushed" it out of history or dishonoured its record.