Riots as N. Ireland talks resume

A road sweeper helps clean up in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast on Friday

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- More than 100 police officers were injured in Northern Ireland overnight in riots preceding the resumption of political talks.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern are due to restart discussions on Friday between all parties involved in the peace process that stalled after three days of talks earlier in the week.

There had appeared to be no breakthrough in the political deadlock that has seen the pro-British Northern Irish First Minister David Trimble resign in protest at the refusal of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to disarm.

Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein, has said the arms issue must be resolved as part of a wider debate, including policing issues and republican demands for scaling down the British military presence in Northern Ireland.

AUDIO "A serious stand-off has developed" 1.15 MB / 2 mins AIFF or WAV sound

Thursday night's violence flared as marchers from the Protestant Orange Order passed through a mainly Catholic area of the Ardoyne, north Belfast. Police made six arrests.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary told CNN that 113 officers were hurt in serious fighting. Nineteen needed hospital treatment and two were detained overnight.

Officers in riot gear and soldiers in armoured vehicles cordoned off the area, as rocks, bottles and firebombs were thrown.

CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney, at the scene of the violence, said a spokesman for Sinn Fein said a number of Catholics had also been hurt as police fired plastic bullets.

Describing the fighting as "pretty vicious," she said water cannon was used against rioters in Northern Ireland for the first time in 20 years.

Sweeney said there had been some reports of firearms being seen among the nationalist protesters.

The violence followed protests in Belfast and Londonderry at bans on several traditional Orange Order marching routes for July 12 parades commemorating the 1690 Battle of the Boyne, when Protestant William of Orange defeated Catholic King James II.

Police used water cannons on protesters Thursday

Drums thumping and bands blaring, an estimated 100,000 Orange Order members and supporters marched to rallies at 19 centres across Northern Ireland.

Most parades are trouble free but the marches that pass through Catholic neighbourhoods have often been the scene of sectarian confrontation and the province's Parades Commission now bans Orangemen from such flashpoint routes.

In Londonderry there was an hour-long standoff when a lone Orange lodge refused to join the city's main "Twelfth" demonstration in protest at being re-routed.

In Belfast about 80 Orangemen and a small group of supporters protested at the Ormeau Bridge at again being banned by the Parades Commission from marching down the nationalist lower end of the road.

Sources familiar with the discussions at Weston Park, a country house in Staffordshire, central England, said there had been little progress on the parades issue.

Politicians from Northern Ireland's Protestant majority and Roman Catholic minority have been blaming each other for lack of progress in implementing the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

The latest attempts to restart the process received a further blow on Wednesday when two hardline Protestant groups withdrew from the talks at the secluded English country retreat.

Trimble's resignation as the head of the power-sharing home-rule administration means the British and Irish governments have until August 12 to come up with a solution acceptable to the political parties in the assembly.

If no agreement is reached, London will have to either suspend the assembly or call fresh elections.