Adams calls for deadline for restoration

Sinn Féin has repeated its demands for the British and Irish governments to introduce a deadline for the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister Tony Blair are meeting in London tomorrow to discuss their approach to solving the stalemate.

A recent British government proposal to re-establish the Northern Ireland Assembly in "shadow" form has been rejected by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the UUP.

This Assembly would continue for a limited period, with full restoration of the elected Assembly conditional on agreement between the parties to re-establish the power-sharing executive.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams today said he had written to the two governments to outline his own strategy to end the current impasse. This includes putting pressure on the DUP to return to powersharing or face being left behind as the governments press ahead with implementing the Belfast Agreement.

But DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley is understood to be under no pressure from the unionist community to enter government with Sinn Féin following the recent IMC report, which implicated the Provisional IRA in continued criminality and intelligence-gathering.

Mr Adams said his strategy calls for the governments to meet the various political parties and impose a deadline for the resolution of talks. He said this deadline should fall before the beginning of the loyalist marching season in the summer.

"If the DUP rejects this then the two governments should, on the basis of joint government decision making, get on with delivering those many parts of the Good Friday Agreement that they have direct responsibility for," he said.

"This would include action to give effect to the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement on Equality and Human Rights, Irish language, victims, symbols and emblems along with an expansion of the all-Ireland elements of the Agreement, including the areas of co-operation and the number of implementation bodies."