By Brendan Anderson

THE Irish and British prime ministers are to host an intense round of “hot house” negotiations outside the North in a bid to meet the November deadline for the return of the Assembly.

Unionist politicians had favored holding the talks at Stormont, but the governments have decided to remove the parties from the distractions of everyday life for the meetings, due to be held over two or three days in the second week of October.

A country house, probably in Scotland, is thought to be the most likely venue for what the British and Irish leaders are insisting is their last attempt at restoring devolved, power-sharing government to the North.

The news was announced Tuesday by Northern Secretary Peter Hain, who insisted there would be no question of any extension to the November 24 deadline laid down by the governments for agreement to be reached on the return of the Assembly.

Speculation that the meetings would be held across the Irish Sea received a cool reception from the anti-Agreement Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Both parties are uncomfortable at the notion of being closeted with Sinn Fein and the SDLP for days of intense talks.

The DUP said last week they would prefer to have the talks held at Stormont, while UUP leader Sir Reg Empey opined that “big house talks would be a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Hain, however, was adamant that the “critical talks will take place outside of Northern Ireland.” He was not, he insisted, trying “to bulldoze anybody into doing anything that they don’t want to do.”

He said there was no possibility of extending the deadline if the talks were inconclusive.

“Northern Ireland has had deadline after deadline after deadline and for all sorts of good reasons in the past they have been extended. We need to concentrate minds. I think it’s much better to get away from the day-to-day issues and daily pressures that face all politicians,” he said.

“This will be a working conference of intense negotiations. This is not some kind of stately home exercise for its own sake. I believe it would be the people of Northern Ireland who will have lost out because democracy will have lost out.”

The only people who would welcome the collapse of peace talks, he said, would be dissident paramilitaries “like the Real IRA who fire-bombed a number of businesses in Newry, close to the border with the Irish Republic, last month.”

The Assembly, he said, would close down at one minute after midnight when the deadline expired. All salaries and allowances would be halted if no agreement was reached.

An indication of the thinking of the two government’s should come in two pending reports from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) set up by the governments to act as watchdog on the Republican and Loyalist ceasefires.

An IMC paper due to be published Wednesday is expected to report that acts of demilitarization by the British Army are on schedule. The process is being carried out in response to the IRA’s statement last year that it had formally ended its campaign of violence.

Several bases and “spy towers,” as they are referred to by Republicans, have already been dismantled. Demolition work is currently being carried out on the joint army-police base at Crossmaglen, probably one of the least popular postings for security personnel due to the high level of IRA operations there in the past.

A second IMC report, due in October, will carry an analysis of Republican and Loyalist activity in recent months. Again, in contrast to past reports, this paper is expected to be positive regarding the IRA and confirm that the organization has not been involved in “criminality.” If the report does put the Republican ceasefire in a positive light, it should help remove some Unionist objections to sitting in devolved government with Sinn Fein.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), political representatives of the proscribed Ulster Volunteer Force, have agreed to resume contact with the IMC. The PUP refused to meet the IMC after the commission recommended financial sanctions against the party in 2004 for failing to use its influence to curb the activities of the UVF.

PUP leader David Ervine will not take part in fresh meetings with the IMC but will nominate other party members.