No 10 confident that Weston Park talks "not in vain"

Both the British and Irish Governments are confident that the Good Friday agreement can be implemented in full, Downing Street said yesterday.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman insisted that last week's talks at Weston Park on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border had not been in vain.

The Government moved to sustain the momentum of the peace process as MPs were asked to approve orders allowing for fresh elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The Northern Ireland office insisted the draft order was a technicality, needed to allow for elections by 2003. But it is essential to allow for elections that would be triggered if the parties fail to agree a deal on implementing the Good Friday agreement before the six-week deadline brought on by the resignation of First Minister David Trimble two weeks ago.

Mr Blair's spokesman dismissed speculation that the Weston Park talks had failed, insisting: "It was not a waste of six days. There was some real engagement."

Mr Blair and the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announced that they would be drawing up a package of proposals for the full implementation of the Good Friday deal, to be put to all of Ulster's pro-Agreement parties.

Yesterday, Mr Blair's official spokesman said the two governments would be in touch in the coming days to "fine tune" the package. The spokesman insisted that Weston Park was "a staging post on the way to implementation of the Good Friday Agreement."

The peace process will be on the agenda on Thursday when Mr Blair meets the US President George Bush at Chequers.

The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, said any agreement would involve both "pain and gain" for all parties involved. Speaking from Brussels, Mr Cowen said: "Both governments have broad agreement as to the type of package that is needed."

The Sinn Fein negotiator Gerry Kelly insisted there could be no changes to the deal struck three years ago. He said: "We are looking forward to the package which is coming forward, but it has to be within the bounds of the Good Friday Agreement."