Unionists give Trimble the OK to meet Adams

ULSTER Unionist leader David Trimble has been given the go-ahead for an historic face-to-face meeting next week with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

First Minister Trimble has finally been given the green light for the ground-breaking move by his party executive.

Pressure on Mr Trimble for the move has been mounting from the American and British governments following Mr Adams" statement last week that violence must be a "thing of the past".

That was intensified by President Bill Clinton's visit to Ireland this week and by the appointment of Sinn Fein strategist Martin McGuinness as liaison officer with the Commission responsible for the scrapping of terrorist weapons. The talks are expected to take place on Tuesday or Wednesday.

They will follow a meeting of all party leaders which Mr Trimble has set up for Monday - a week before the resumption of the new assembly.

Senior UUP executive Dermot Nesbitt said there were no dissenting voices in the executive.

Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam said the meeting was another step in the right direction.

She added that there would be more "tough but necessary" decisions in the weeks and months ahead, "including the early release of prisoners and the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons".

Ms Mowlam added that she understood the decision of Omagh's David Bolton to quit the Sentence Review Commission - overseeing the early release of terrorist prisoners - in order to devote more time to the victims of last month's blast.

Mr Bolton is director of community care and executive director of social work in the Sperrin Lakeland Health Trust which covers the devastated town.

He co-ordinated the reaction of the health and social services to the bombing and is set to lead the trust"s long-term response.

POLICE yesterday came under attack in Portadown from petrol bombs thrown by Loyalists after separating them from Republicans in a town centre car park. The trouble came before a Loyalist parade.

Police recovered a quantity of petrol and bottles in the town's Carlton Street. They seized petrol and a stockpile of bottles, sugar and rags in a shed on the Loyalist Corcraine estate.

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