Britain To Start Peace Talks With N. Ireland

Britain said Wednesday it expects to start peace talks with Northern Ireland’s main parties after this weekend - but not yet with the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party.

“There is nothing to fear from talking, but so much to gain,” Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew, the top British official in the province, told a gathering of businessmen.

Mayhew said he and his deputy, Michael Ancram, expect to meet after Easter for talks with most parties but not Sinn Fein. Britain has resisted holding talks with Sinn Fein because the Irish Republican Army hasn’t agreed to the British demand to give up its weapons.

The talks are intended to smooth the way for negotiations on the province’s future.

Mayhew was joined at the meeting by Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, who was making a surprise visit to Northern Ireland.

Elsewhere Wednesday, bulldozers and jackhammers dismantled anti-car bomb barriers that for 23 years had blocked the main road outside an oftenbombed police station in south Belfast.