UK minister says talks to restore N.Ireland government moving slowly

They then also rejected a revised deal, the Windsor Framework, this February. Britain is in talks with the DUP over restoring the power-sharing government, but Northern Ireland minister Chris Heaton-Harris declined to be drawn on the details of how those talks were going.

Britain's Northern Ireland minister on Tuesday said that talks to restore the province's devolved government were moving slowly because there was a lack of clarity on the right legislative approach to end the impasse. Northern Ireland's devolved executive collapsed in February last year when the Democratic Unionist Party pulled out in protest at the UK/European Union post-Brexit trade deal. They then also rejected a revised deal, the Windsor Framework, this February.

Britain is in talks with the DUP over restoring the power-sharing government, but Northern Ireland minister Chris Heaton-Harris declined to be drawn on the details of how those talks were going. "I would love to move a lot quicker than we are, but it is inch by inch," he said at an event in London.

London has pledged to introduce laws to protect trade between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, but it is unclear what is needed to satisfy the DUP and whether the legislation would be compatible with the revised EU/UK trade deal. Heaton-Harris said the DUP needed to be given assurance "somehow in legislative terms - yet to be defined how, on either side" that Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom until its people decided otherwise, as per the 1998 Belfast Good Friday peace accord.

"It's not enough for (the DUP) just to hear it. So they need some sort of demonstration of that. How you do that is a moot point," he said.