Sinn Féin call for all package details to be published

Sinn Féin have said they have not yet reached a decision on the Anglo-Irish blueprint and have called for more information to be published.

The statement came after Sinn Féin’s ruling executive met in Dundalk on Friday at a specially called Ard Chomhairle to discuss the recent proposals aimed at salvaging the Good Friday Agreement.

Sinn Fein's executive met in a hotel in Castle Bellingham in the Irish Republic, not far from the border with Northern Ireland, at 10 am on Friday morning, while other pro-Agreement parties met with Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid in Belfast, to discuss the new revised implementation plan on police reform. Importantly none of the parties actually received a copy of the 80-page document, but instead were briefed on its contents.

The meetings come hours after a bomb exploded in London injuring seven people. Although no-one has claimed responsibility for the blast, detectives at Scotland Yard believe the attack was carried by the Real IRA because of similar attacks in recent years.

Speaking after the meeting Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said the party had not yet made up its mind about the package of proposals and called for the British and Irish governments to publish immediately the details of all their proposals. He said: “This includes the revised implementation plan on policing plus the legislative amendments to the ‘Policing Act’ and the implementation plan to deliver a fair and impartial system of justice.”

Mr Adams also stressed the “need for a civic, accountable, representative police service free of partisan political control.”

Commenting on the car bomb attack in London on Thursday night Mr Adams said Sinn Féin were resolutely opposed to the bombing. “Any real republican would be involved in trying to build upon the opportunities for peace and justice which are part of this process and which this party leadership and others are engaged in.”

The package was published on Wednesday August 1, and the parties have been given only until Monday August 6 to respond to it.

It covers all four outstanding issues - policing, normalisation, the stability of the institutions and disarmament.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged the parties to look at the proposals carefully. Speaking from Mexico on Thursday he said he believed it was a "fair and balanced package" that could deal with the outstanding issues.

He also said he hoped that the parties would "study them in the right spirit and then recognise that all of us have a responsibility to take them forward". (AMcE)