North Irish deal stalls over IRA arms photos

BELFAST - A major push to seal a political settlement for the turbulent British province of Northern Ireland stalled at the last moment on Wednesday over demands for photographic evidence of IRA guerrillas scrapping their arms.

Despite the breakdown, Britain and Ireland went ahead and published their joint plan for reviving a power-sharing government in Belfast, saying they were agonisingly close to a landmark deal between divided Protestant and Catholic parties.

"What's been achieved is remarkable, but not yet complete," said Blair. "I may be a weary traveller but I am not downhearted - I think there is an inevitability about this (peace) process that is now locked in."

The deal stalled because Protestant unionists led by 78-year-old hardline preacher Ian Paisley are demanding Catholic Irish Republican Army guerrillas allow photographic proof of disarmament to show "repentance" for three decades of conflict.

But Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, says that would be unacceptable humiliation for one of Europe's oldest guerrilla groups, which is proud remaining undefeated in its struggle to end the province's union with Britain.

"We will carry on working to get this last part of the way, this last part of the climb," Blair told a news conference.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said he hoped agreement could still be reached by Christmas. "We are now on the brink of an accommodation that would have been regarded as impossible not all that long ago," he said.

The two leaders were speaking at Belfast's Waterfront Hall, where they had intended to trumpet a new agreement to revive a regional assembly first set up under the US-backed 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Instead they found themselves back among depressingly familiar scenes of recriminations between rival Protestant and Catholic parties.

Blair said the package included an IRA commitment to give up all its weapons by the end of the year and pledge it was retiring as a fighting force if a wider deal were struck.

But the process remains stuck over disarmament photos -- a question of face-saving for the sectarian foes who blame each other for 30 years of violence that claimed more than 3,600 lives.

On ceasefire since the mid-1990s, the IRA has carried out three partial acts of disarmament since 2001 in strict secrecy with a retired Canadian general as witness.

Sinn Fein says the IRA is willing to give up all its guns and explosives, but will not submit to photos.

"What's holding it (a deal) up? ...The demand for a process of humiliation," Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said.

Politicians from the pro-union Protestant majority say the secrecy undermines faith that the IRA is committed to peace.

"I'm not withdrawing anything I've said about the bloodthirsty monsters of the IRA," said an unrepentant Paisley. "Because they are in political talks doesn't give them deliverance for their past sins."

- REUTERS