THE Prime Minister will fly back to Northern Ireland today in the latest phase of his drive to bring lasting peace to the province.

He is expected in Belfast for his fourth visit in five weeks maintaining the Northern Ireland issue at the top of his political agenda.

Tony Blair will have a round of private talks with the local political parties which are set to focus on the assembly legislation the Government is to put before the House of Commons within the next fortnight.

Last night Mr Blair was in Dublin for talks with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who confirmed plans to invite Mr Blair to address the Dublin Parliament later this year.

Mr Ahern made the announcement as he welcomed Mr Blair at the start of his first visit to Dublin since taking office last year. Mr Blair, who will be the first British politician to address the Irish Parliament, said he would be ''honoured and privileged''.

While the meeting with his Irish counterpart was officially the latest stage in his trip around Europe in advance of the European heads of government summit in Cardiff later in the month, the current state of the peace process was high on their agenda.

Mr Blair had flown in from Madrid where he had also been discussing the agenda for the Cardiff summit and agreed to hold annual summits with Spanish leaders.

The decision reached at his meeting with Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar reflected ''excellent'' UK-Spanish relations, a Downing Street spokesman said.

Between yesterday and Saturday June 13, the eve of the summit, Mr Blair will either travel to meet or meet at Downing Street Portuguese, Italian, Austrian, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Belgian, Luxembourg, German, French and Greek leaders.

Last night over a working dinner at Dublin Castle Mr Blair and Mr Ahern were reviewing the timetable for progress and were expected to focus on the consequences of the violence which erupted over the weekend in the wake of a Junior Orange Order parade in Portadown, County Armagh.

Six hours of violence on Saturday left 15 policemen and four civilians injured. There was more trouble when police were petrol bombed in Lurgan on Sunday and a van was hijacked and set on fire by masked men in Newry.

Parades Commission chairman Alastair Graham branded the violence ''totally unnecessary''.

Defending the decision not to ban the parade he said: ''We are talking about 40 children and one band. It hardly touched the Garvaghy Road, it was mainly in a non-contentious area.''

However, a founder member of the Parades Commission last night called for the body to be wound up and replaced by a sub-committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will be elected at the end of the month.

The Rev Roy Magee - who brokered the loyalist ceasefire - resigned from the commission last December. He was followed by two more members earlier this year when the commission failed to publish its overview of contentious parades this summer following intervention by the Prime Minister.

Mr Magee said the body in effect now had no loyalist representation and it was time for it to be wound up.

He said: ''I don't think the commission can continue to operate, I think it has to be under an accountable body. And that is why I am suggesting a sub-committee of the assembly, that body would be totally accountable.''