Adams sets out review agenda

Sinn Féin President Gerry Kelly has set out his party's agenda for the review of the Good Friday Agreement due to start next Tuesday.

Mr Adams said that the review will not be a renegotiation of the Good Friday Agreement but it is an opportunity to accelerate the process of change promised in the Agreement.

He said: "The purpose of the Review is to identify how best to deliver the full implementation of the Agreement. This requires a focus on the failure of the British government to deliver on key commitments on policing, demilitarisation, equality and the issue of human rights.

"Sinn Féin will approach this review positively. The other pro-Agreement parties and the two governments must also take a positive and constructive approach. The future of the Good Friday Agreement demands this.

"The Good Friday Agreement committed the participants to the achievement of reconciliation, tolerance and trust and the vindication of the human rights of all. We collectively committed ourselves to partnership, equality and mutual respect. To be effective the review must defend and accelerate the process of change promised in the Good Friday Agreement."

Asked about recent IRA fund raising claims made by Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, Mr Adams challenged Mr McDowell to produce evidence of this. He denied that Sinn Féin was funded by the IRA and said that the local government election campaigns in the south were behind the allegations.

Bairbre de Brún said that Sinn Féin would focus on four key areas in the review, which is due to start next week.

Ms de Brún said: "This demands action across a range of areas including the stability of the political institutions; human rights and equality; expansion of the All Ireland commitments; and demilitarisation, policing and justice."

Former First Minister David Trimble speaking in Spain yesterday said that he was concerned that unless republican leaders completed the "transition" and armed groups no longer existed there was there would be a continuing political deadlock.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan who met with the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen yesterday said that he had asked the governments to publish detailed plans on the full delivery of the Agreement and joint declaration.

The review of the Good Friday Agreement begins on February 3.

(SP)