Sinn Fein president Mr Gerry Adams may refuse to attend a hearing of a US Congressional inquiry into alleged links between the IRA and Marxist guerrillas in Colombia, he said today.
Mr Adams has been summoned to appear before a sub-committee of the House Committee on International Relations later this month to tell congressmen what he knows about the arrest of three alleged IRA members in Colombia last August.
Yesterday, the sub-committee's chairman Mr Cass Ballenger said he had "no doubt" that Mr Niall Connolly, Mr Martin McCauley and Mr James Monaghan were in the South American country to train members of the rebel guerilla group FARC in bomb-making techniques.
He said that he was expecting Mr Adams' evidence to provide more definite proof about the three men's activities.
But Mr Adams told BBC Radio 4's Todayprogramme: "I am in two minds whether to go to this hearing or not.
He said he had been advised not to go, as there was no case to answer.
He added: "These men are facing trial and there is a very strong lobby here that there should be nothing done which would prejudice their possibility of a fair trial."
BBC reports yesterday suggested that Mr Ballenger's sub-committee had found the IRA's presence in Colombia was a "direct threat to the US and the stability of the region".
The men, who are being held in jail awaiting trial, are alleged to have spent the month before their arrest in a remote area of the country controlled by FARC.
Mr Ballenger said: "It just had the IRA's fingerprints all over it. I am sure that they weren't just there to have tea and crumpets. Why in the world would FARC want three members of the IRA to come visit?
PA