The Berlin Wall may be just a piece of history after the fall of communism in the old USSR, but Belfast's decades old Peace Line continues to blight community relations.

That's the view of the Stormont Justice Minister David Ford who has today said that such peacelines remain an obstacle to building a shared future for Northern Ireland.

The Minister reaffirmed the Department of Justice's commitment to working in partnership with political and community leaders to remove security barriers across Northern Ireland.

He was speaking today after a meeting with Duncan Morrow from the Community Relations Council and Michael Hughes from the Rural Community Network where they discussed their report 'Beyond Belfast - Contested Spaces in Urban, Rural and Cross Border Settings'.

During a tour of other existing 'Peacelines' - security barriers in the greater Whitewell area of north Belfast - the Minister also met members of the local Hazelwood Community Partnership and discussed a dividing fence at Hazelwood Integrated School.

David Ford said: "These walls, fences and gates are daily reminders that, despite the political progress we have made over the last decade, we still have a huge challenge ahead to break down the mistrust and separation that exists within our community.

"Building a Shared Future is not an optional extra - it goes to the core of transforming society and building a new Northern Ireland in which people can live, learn and work together in safety," he said.

"This is an ambitious goal and while security barriers can be erected in weeks, it will take time to grow the necessary community support to have them removed.

"The Department of Justice is committed to building a Shared Future and, as part of that commitment, I have met a number of local communities and put in place measures to review the existing arrangements," the Alliance party Executive Minister continued.

"The long term solution does not rest solely with my Department. We must create partnerships at both political and community levels so that together we can start the process of removing these physical reminders of separation," he said.

The first barriers were built in 1969, following the outbreak of sustained rioting in west Belfast - that in turn had followed days of violence on the streets of Londonderry.

When the Army was called in to separate opposing mobs fighting between the nationalist Falls Road and the loyalist Shankill, soldiers at first held the line.

As the initial mob chaos was brought under control, a series of tit-for-tat sectarian killings that followed meant that the original demarcation line became the escape route for loyalist and nationalist murderers alike.

As a result, the original Peaceline was built to make it easier for the Army to police the situation and keep a lid on the growing bloodshed that blighted NI for decades afterwards.

They were built as temporary structures, but due to their effective nature they have become more permanent, wider and longer.

(BMcC/GK)