Irish Foreign Minister and new Secretary of State to meet again after ''very good' talks on powersharing
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney and the new Secretary of State Karen Bradley are due to meet next week in the hope of making progress on the powersharing deadlock.
Mr Coveney, who flew into London from a visit to the Middle East to meet the newly appointed Northern Ireland Secretary, said their meeting had been "very good" and he expected they were "going to work very well together".
The Irish deputy prime minister said there remained "significant challenges" but both governments wanted to find a way to resolve the stand-off.
He said: "Everybody knows that there are time constraints in terms of the work that we need to do but also I think everybody agrees that we want devolved government again in Northern Ireland."
Meeting Mr Coveney inside the NIO offices, Mrs Bradley said: "We have a shared objective - restoring devolved government as soon as possible."
She noted that she had now had discussions with all the main parties at Stormont and Mr Coveney.
Mrs Bradley added: "I look forward to reflecting on those conversations over the weekend to decide the way forward."
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney speaks after his first meeting with Secretary of State Karen Bradley
The meeting came after a week of controversies around the 1976 Kingsmill massacre in south Armagh.
Mr Coveney attacked the "really,really stupid and insensitive" actions of Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff, who posted a social media video of him with a Kingsmill branded loaf on his head on the anniversary of an atrocity that saw republican paramilitaries shoot dead 10 Protestant workmen.
Mr McElduff, who apologised and insisted the video was not a reference to the massacre, was suspended by Sinn Fein for three months.
Unionists reacted angrily, both to the post and the extent of Sinn Fein's punishment, and the incident appeared to further reduce the already bleak prospects of a deal to restore powersharing.
The situation was exacerbated on Wednesday when a number of unionist politicians retweeted a graphic satirical cartoon that portrayed the Mr McElduff controversy by depicting the aftermath of the Kingsmill outrage, with blood running from a bullet-riddled van.
The incidents prompted the sole survivor of the Kingsmill shootings, Alan Black, to implore politicians on all sides to stop trying to "poke each other's eye out" and instead help the victims.
Mr Coveney said: "I think the unfortunate things that have happened in relation to Kingsmill this week and the absolutely understandable upset of families because of a really, really stupid and insensitive occurrence is a reminder of just how important legacy and reconciliation is."
Watch our Deputy Political Editor Tracey Magee's report: