Ahern, Blair postpone visit to North as SF rejects latest proposals

The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has rejected the latest proposals aimed at breaking the political deadlock, forcing senior British and Irish offi cials to continue their intensive negotiations through the rest of this week.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, were on standby yesterday to fly to Northern Ireland. However, when it became clear that Sinn Fein wanted further movement on policing, they put off any possible visit to next week at the earliest.

It is understood that a formula which flowed from the recent weeks of talks was put to Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party on Tuesday. While the governments and these three parties agreed that progress had been made, Sinn Fein said it still could not accept what was on offer on policing.

"No one who wants a genuine new beginning to policing could agree to the current proposals from the British government because there is no reasonable certainty that they will achieve that objective," said Mr Adams.

Republican sources said Sinn Fein was demanding movement from the British government on issues such as increasing the power of the policing board, plastic bullets, and ex-paramilitary prisoners being allowed join the district policing partnerships, before it would sign up to the police reform package.

Some of these demands would require legislative changes. There is speculation this could be dealt with through commitments to amend the Police Act after the British general election. Mr Adams warned that any "commitments have to be spelt out in a clear, transparent and unambiguous manner".

His MLA colleague, Mr Pat Doherty, said republicans would exert maximum pressure to have their demands met. "We have waited for 80 years to achieve a new beginning to policing. A few more months or a year won't put us out that much if we get this right."

Notwithstanding Mr Doherty's comments, all sides agree that with Westminster and local elections imminent, time is short for agreement. Hurdles also remained on demilitarisation and putting IRA weapons beyond use, but policing was proving the most obstinate challenge, Sinn Fein said.

Its decision caused disappointment but not despair among the British and Irish diplomats who are trying to devise a deal which would win broad agreement among nationalists and unionists.

The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, who is not as central to these talks as Sinn Fein and the SDLP, flew to Washington yesterday where he is to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Mr Adams cancelled a visit to the US this week to concentrate on the talks. "Sinn Fein remains locked into talks with the two governments to make progress across the range of matters at the heart of the current crisis," he said.

Mr Ahern and Mr Blair have commitments in Rome and North America in the middle of next week, although if it was believed that a deal was achievable, they could be in Northern Ireland for Monday and/or Tuesday morning.

The SDLP Minister of Finance, Mr Mark Durkan, said last night that with the political barometer going up and down, it was understandable that people could become frustrated. "We have to go on and we will go on because there isn't really any alternative that people of goodwill can tolerate," he said.