David Trimble has warned that the government risks losing all "credibility" in Northern Ireland if next week's Leeds Castle talks end in failure.

Speaking at Northern Ireland questions in the Commons on Wednesday, the Ulster Unionist leader said the impasse in the peace process had gone on too long.

After of the multi-party talks to be held in Maidstone, the former first minister argued that devolution needs to be restored as quickly as possible if the Good Friday agreement, on which the government has staked its entire strategy, is to survive.

Hopes for restoring the Stormont assembly rest in part on republicans giving guarantees that the IRA will decommission its weapons before Sinn Fein take a seat in the executive.

But Trimble pointed out that it is nearly two years ago that Tony Blair called for guns to be taken out of Ulster politics once and for all after the institutions were suspended over evidence of an IRA spy ring.

"This autumn marks one year since the assembly election, a year which has frittered away," the Upper Bann MP said.

"It also marks two years from the time the prime minister in Belfast said 'we have now come to a fork in the road'.

"Would the secretary of state not agree, that the government would be left with no credibility whatsoever if after Leeds Castle it was found to be still hanging around at that fork in the road?"

Responsibility

Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy replied that the government agreed the talks require a clear outcome but that ministers had not been responsible for the suspension of the assembly

"Of course it has been a frustrating year or two since we had to suspend devolution in Northern Ireland," he said.

"No one wanted that, to go back to direct rule, every party in Northern Ireland wants devolution restored.

"But I think that he would agree with me that we have come to the stage in the process to make proper decisions.

"We simply can't drift on in the process. We have to ensure that we address those central issues and come to the conclusion that we all want."