NEW British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has arrived in the north to begin talks with the main parties over the power-sharing deadlock.
Boris will begin talks with the Stormont parties on Wednesday morning.
Speaking at Stormont, Mr Johnson said his prime focus was to do everything he could to help get Stormont "back up and running".
"The people of Northern Ireland have now been without an Executive and Assembly for two years and six months. Put simply, this is much, much too long,” he said.
"Northern Ireland's citizens need and deserve the Executive to get up and running again as soon as possible, so that locally accountable politicians can take decisions on the issues that really matter to local people.
"I'm pleased to meet each of Northern Ireland's party leaders today to stress that I am going to do everything in my power to make the ongoing talks to restore devolution a success.
"I will be helping the parties in any way I can to help get that over the line.
"I expect Brexit may come up but it's crucial that I attach huge importance to the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement."
Mr Johnson also met with DUP leader Arlene Foster on Tuesday night.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning, Ms Foster said: “We talked about the fact we both wanted to get a deal, we talked about the fact that Dublin and indeed Brussels needed to dial back on the rhetoric and be a willing a partner to find a deal, not just for the United Kingdom but for Republic of Ireland and the whole of Europe.
"It is important we focus on trying to get a deal moving forward instead of just focusing on no deal scenario.
"No deal is on the table because of the fact we have a very belligerent European Union, who instead of focusing on a deal that was good for all of us, wanted to break up the United Kingdom, something of course which no British prime minister should be a part of."
