Adams urges Blair not to suspend NI assembly

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams left Downing Street today saying that he had a "constructive, frank, cordial and open" meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The meeting, which follows the allegations of intelligence gathering by the IRA, was called in an attempt to avert the current crisis of confidence in the peace process.

However, despite Mr Adams urging the prime minister not to suspend the power-sharing executive, which he said would be a mistake, government sources were indicating that suspension on Monday was looking increasingly likely.

The Sinn Féin delegation led by Mr Adams met the Prime Minister for the first time since the so-called "Stormontgate" allegations hit the headlines and produced a storm of political controversy.

Ahead of the meeting Mr Adams claimed: "The crisis that we are having now is one that the Ulster Unionist Party planned for next January.

"Remember they decided to withdraw from the institutions, they decided to withdraw from the Policing Board, they decided Sinn Fein should be excluded from the executive."

The allegations of intelligence gathering within Sinn Féin opened up a new abyss for the peace process as the Good Friday Agreement parties continue to take stock of the situation and the round of meetings have reached the highest levels of Downing Street.

Before entering the meeting with Mr Blair, Mr Adams said that "disbandment of the IRA was a laudable and necessary objective of this process".

It is thought that Mr Blair and Mr Ahern sought assurances from Mr Adams about the disbandment of the IRA, but that failing this, the assembly and its associated institutions would be suspended for a fourth time to protect the power-sharing agreement.

Mr Blair met with his Irish counterpart Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday evening for over two hours. But there was no comment as Mr Ahern left the meeting accompanied by Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowan.

However, on the way in to No. 10 yesterday, Mr Ahern said that he wished to see the Northern Ireland Assembly continue to work, but that with a breakdown of trust between the parties, suspension of the assembly may be the only option. He again pledged to remain committed to pursuing the goals of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Ahern stated: "The reality is that the Good Friday Agreement is the agenda and remains the template for progress in Northern Ireland."

The Taoiseach said all the parties knew the benefits of the Good Friday Agreement and urged the parties not to get into the blame-game despite the recent setbacks.

However, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is poised to pull his party out of the assembly by next week and the Democratic Unionist Party have declared that their members will quit the assembly at noon tomorrow.

Leader of the nationalist SDLP Mark Durkan said that his party would not be seeking the exclusion of Sinn Féin from the power-sharing assembly, but neither did he consider it appropriate to ask the unionists to sit in the assembly with Sinn Féin under the current circumstances.

Mr Durkan said that he was being realistic but not fatalistic in his approach to the crisis. He appealed for considered action to not only minimise the damage, but to "optimise the prospects for moving forward again".

(SP)