Northern Irish rivals wrangle over IRA disarmament

LONDON - Northern Ireland's rival political parties have locked horns over the issue of disarming the Irish Republican Army guerrillas amid frantic efforts to agree a final peace settlement for the province.

Ian Paisley, the leader of Northern Ireland's largest Protestant party, and Gerry Adams, who heads the political ally of the IRA, accused each other of blocking the way to a deal on Monday.

But officials said an agreement was tantalisingly close and Paisley rejected suggestions that Wednesday marked a deadline.

Britain and Ireland are trying to broker an agreement between the two biggest parties on either side of Northern Ireland's sectarian divide that would see the bitter foes share power in a regional government and the IRA put down its arms.

"We must have full decommissioning and there must be a record of it," said Paisley, who heads the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that supports political union with Britain.

"Photographs must be taken of it and all the people have to see them and know it has been done and done right," Paisley said in London.

But Catholic republicans, who want a united Ireland, say they suspect the demand is an attempt to humiliate the IRA, which views itself as an undefeated guerrilla army after calling a ceasefire in its campaign against British rule in 1997.

Earlier in Belfast, Sinn Fein's Adams said Protestant calls for photographic proof of IRA disarmament could sink a deal.

"In the next 48 hours we have the opportunity to make a quantum leap forward in the process. Is all of this going to be thrown away because Ian Paisley does not get the process of humiliation he wants?" said Adams.

Paisley, a veteran preacher, was adamant.

"If you sin publicly you have to repent publicly. If the IRA-Sinn Fein are honest and face up to their responsibilities they have to take the humility and the humiliation."

Paisley gave Prime Minister Tony Blair his verdict on an Anglo-Irish blueprint to restore devolved government set up under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement but suspended in October 2002 when trust broke down.

"It is the best opportunity. We never were as near to a settlement," he said.

Meetings between key players are expected to continue on Tuesday. Britain and Ireland are poised to call time on talks and officials say they want an agreement by Wednesday.

Asked if Blair would travel to Belfast on Wednesday, Paisley said: "You think it (Wednesday) is a deadline, I don't think it's a deadline. It'll come when it comes."

"He'll not be coming if it's not solved," he added, referring to IRA disarmament.

Full disarmament of the IRA is key to the blueprint, along with the withdrawal of thousands of British troops from the province of 1.7 million people. Previous partial acts of disarmament by the IRA have been carried out in strict secrecy.

Blair's official spokesman earlier indicated London and Dublin were likely to publish details of their so-far confidential plan even if no agreement was struck.

"We'd let the people of Northern Ireland judge for themselves no matter what the outcome," the spokesman said.

The political and sectarian violence which claimed 3,600 lives over three decades in the province has largely ended since the 1998 Good Friday accord but stability has remained elusive.

- REUTERS