Blair Tries to Salvage Northern Ireland Accord

British Prime Minister Tony Blair embarked on a bid to patch up Northern Ireland’s fraying peace accord, summoning the province’s polarized political parties for talks at his Downing Street residence in London.

The 1998 accord was a landmark achievement for Blair in his first term and, as he begins his second one, he is seeking to prevent its collapse. But Northern Ireland’s principal politicians took an acrimonious tone, blaming one another--and at times Blair--for the deadlock.

The same parliamentary elections that swept Blair back to power earlier this month dealt a stinging setback to the more moderate parties on both sides of Northern Ireland’s secular divide.