A 15-year deal to print The Daily Telegraph in Newry, County Down and a seven-year extension to a deal to print the Daily Mirror on the presses of the Belfast Telegraph, were announced yesterday afternoon.

INM now prints all Mirror and Telegraph titles, as well as The Sun, the News of the World, the Daily Express the Sunday Express, the Daily Star and the London Independent in Ireland.

However, the publisher is still being plagued by internal fighting. Despite the announcement of the printing contracts,  feuding principal shareholders Anthony O'Reilly and Denis O'Brien clashed again.

O'Brien, who has been calling for the company's future to be resolved in recent months, including suggestions of the closure or sale of The Independent, demanded that a financial restructuring plan to save the company be put to shareholder vote, against the wishes of O'Reilly.

According to O'Brien, a vote should be added to the company's EGM, which is scheduled to take place in October. O'Brien claims that shareholders have seen around 90% of the value of their shares in the company "wiped off".

However, in a strongly worded statement issued to the London and Dublin stock markets yesterday, the board of the Irish company said O'Brien had failed to put forward "any credible restructuring proposal" and again invited him to do so.

The statement also criticised his "apparent personal antagonism" towards the board and management.