Summit Will Address Peace Process Deadlock

The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland will hold a two-day summit next week with Northern Ireland political leaders amid signs that Britain is growing increasingly impatient with the Irish Republican Army’s refusal to disarm.

Britain’s Tony Blair and Ireland’s Bertie Ahern will meet Monday in London, then move to a secluded mansion in the English Midlands for talks that are to include unionist and republican leaders in a bid to break the deadlock in Northern Ireland’s peace process.

Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, John Reid, said it was hoped that a change of venue would help “recapture the vision that was in the Good Friday agreement” of 1998.