A government minister has denied that Tony Blair misled the Commons over the details of last week's IRA decommissioning.

Northern Ireland Office minister Jane Kennedy rejected suggestions the prime minister had falsely claimed to know more than he was actually told about the act of decommissioning overseen by General John de Chastelaine.

Conservative spokesman Quentin Davies accused Blair of deceiving the Commons with his statement to MPs.

The Tories say the prime minister had not been briefed on the exact nature of the IRA's move.

"General de Chastelaine has now made it quite clear that he never gave any additional information to the prime minister, or to the two governments by any other means," Davies said.

"Let alone incremental information which could have had the significance the prime minister claimed for it.

"We can either believe General de Chastelaine or we can believe the prime minister."

Responding for the government, Kennedy said Blair would inevitably have heard more from General de Chastelaine than he was able to say publicly.

"It is entirely unsurprising that the prime minister was left with a greater sense of the nature of the event as result of his lengthy discussion with the commissioners," she said.

Downing Street had earlier insisted that Blair had been given confidential information in an hour-long meeting with the weapons chief.

Talks on the future of the Northern Ireland assembly continued today although few expect a deal to be done ahead of the November 26 elections.

Sinn Fein prepared the ground for a failure to reach agreement on restoring Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive.

Senior party official Alex Maskey blamed the Ulster Unionist Party for "effectively walked away for this phase of the process".

His comments suggest that hopes are fading for a new deal on IRA decommissioning before elections to the Stormont assembly are held.

Talks are continuing in a bid to reach agreement on providing extra clarity on the latest round of IRA decommissioning.

Number 10 said there had been "a lot of contact" and "intensive discussions" over the weekend.

"You can take it that the prime minister has been involved in that," said a spokesman.

While not talking up the chances of a deal, Number 10 added that it was "good...that people are still engaged on all sides".

"Equally, we are not underestimating the difficulties, and there are clearly particular problems in resolving them in the run-up to elections," added the official spokesman.

Former first minister David Trimble has called for extra clarity from the IRA.

However Maskey blamed the Ulster Unionists for the current impasse.

Accepting that recent talks between the key parties had been "a hugely important development", he said that Sinn Fein had delivered on its part in the "sequence" of events leading up to the election.

"Others did not fulfil their part as agreed," Maskey added. "Instead the UUP put up new demands. We have spent the days since then trying to find a way through this."

"However, I believe that the UUP have effectively walked away for this phase of the process," he added.

"I could be wrong. I hope that I am wrong. Mr Trimble needs to tell us. He needs to make his position clear.

"It is now over to David Trimble and the UUP leadership to decide."