N Ireland: Final agreement 'must be struck' by Monday

A final agreement on dealing with Northern Ireland's troubled past, parades and flags must be struck by Monday, the independent chairs of all-party talks has said.

Earlier, Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party said part of the political deal proposed by former US diplomat Dr Richard Haass is "unworkable".

"There's a large part of the document I could readily bring to the party, there are other elements that render the rest unworkable.

"I hope he (Dr Haass) will be able to see a conclusion and we're still optimistic it can be reached, but it won't be reached by us fudging issues or doing something more abruptly than we would otherwise want to," said Mr Robinson

Dr Haass has warned the individual parties will not get all they want and difficult choices will have to be made but the alternative to agreement had been seen in recent trouble on the streets.

Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness told the BBC:

"I just think that for Richard Haass and (vice chair) Meghan O'Sullivan to leave here without making an agreement would be a terrible embarrassment for politicians, for the process, and would clearly show a lack of leadership qualities in terms of facing up to these very difficult challenges."