BEIJING, May 20 -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has held separate talks at Downing Street with both Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley aimed at restarting the fragile peace process in Northern Ireland.

    However, the talks, the first to be held since the general election earlier this month, offered little hope of a breakthrough.

    Paisley's DUP believe they have a mandate to exclude Sinn Fein completely from the devolved Northern Irish assembly at Stormont, while Sinn Fein would like to see the restoration of a power-sharing executive under the Good Friday Agreement.

    On Wednesday, US envoy Mitchell Reiss urged the Irish Republican Army to respond unambiguously to calls by Sinn Fein, its political wing, to end violence.

    In another development, Tony Blair was treated on Thursday at a hospital in London for a slipped disc. His Downing Street office said he was now at his country residence Chequers, and was not expected to need further treatment.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)