He knows that the slow pace of multi-party talks in Northern Ireland is unnerving nationalists.

ECONOMIST: Northern Ireland

Firstly on social care - local authorities fear that multi-party talks on reforming the system of social funding have stalled.

BBC: Tough times in local government

China and Russia, North Korea's closest allies, called for a resumption of the stalled multi-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

BBC: UN 'deplores' North Korea botched rocket launch

Unionist politicians accuse the British government of betrayal, and mutter about walking out of multi-party talks, which have been going nowhere in any case.

ECONOMIST: Terror in Ulster

Yet the Bush administration recently, and for the first time, dispatched a diplomat to join multi-party talks with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapon ambitions.

ECONOMIST: The Middle East and America's election

In fact, multi-party talks have never produced any agreement in Ulster.

ECONOMIST: Northern Ireland

The immediate result has been two unionist parties storming out of the multi-party talks in Belfast, and the largest unionist party, the Ulster Unionists, probably scuppering the current talks format by voting against the decommissioning plan (see article).

ECONOMIST: The Belfast express