Adams appeals for calm approach in dealing with crisis

The Sinn Féin leader, Mr Gerry Adams, last night appealed for all parties to the Belfast Agreement to "be calm" in their approach to the crisis in the Executive.

Speaking after his meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in Government buildings, Mr Adams asked whose agenda would be served by the Northern institutions "going into freefall".

On being told by waiting media of the DUP ministers' resignations, Mr Adams said "if they walk out, they are going to have to come back, that is the reality". He insisted that "whoever leaves will have to come back ... what is the alternative? There isn't any alternative"

He said the DUP move "might delay the process, might even put it into reverse for a while but it can't prevent the process" because it is the "sacrosanct wish of the people".

Mr Adams described the DUP as a faction of unionism which was opposed to the agreement but he said their walkout was not a victory. "The only way that they can win is if the rest of us give up", he said.

Mr Adams said Sinn Féin will be tenacious "because we happen to have been lucky enough to survive the last 30 years".

He said he had told Mr Ahern that if the crisis over the arrest of Sinn Féin activist Mr Denis Donaldson on charges of having information of use to terrorists had not come about, "then I would have been meeting the Taoiseach about what to do about \ other current dilemma", the threat by unionists to withdraw at a later date.

Mr Adams had assured the Taoiseach that Sinn Féin were "about the business of making peace work" and would have had to be "really stupid" to engage in such intelligence gathering, particularly at this time.

While all parties would have to have reference to the people, rather than "to some super-referee in Britain", he said Mr Blair may be less "unilateral" in his approach to the crisis than the Northern Secretary, Dr Reid.

He said an apology for the timing of the raid on Sinn Féin offices in Stormont from the PSNI chief Mr Hugh Orde was "gracious, but a bit late".

Earlier, Mr Adams said a suspension of the agreement would be playing into the hands of "anti-agreement elements of Unionism" and the "securicrats" in Northern Ireland. He questioned the need for a "heavily armed police raid on a parliamentary body" and the timing of the raid on Sinn Féin offices in Stormont.

Mr Adams asked "even if one person was guilty" of such an offence, would it be reason to send in armed police and bring about the collapse of the Executive?

"The DUP is on the record of leaking Northern Ireland Office papers", he maintained, and referred to "the murder of nationalists" through collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.