The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has given qualified praise to the British Prime Minister's approach to the Northern Ireland conflict. Speaking in the US, Mr Adams gave an insight into recent encounters between Sinn Fein and Mr Blair at Downing Street.
He told a news conference that Mr Blair's style was "much different from that of his predecessor. In our engagements with him, we have found a frankness and an ability to discuss matters which, as an Irish republican, I find very intriguing . . . and we are able to hear his views of the situation."
Commenting on their meeting this week, Mr Adams said: "I made a number of suggestions and propositions about what is required to try to build a better future, and argued for a transitional phase. If people say there can't be a united Ireland by May, well then, let's see movement, let's see a rolling process.
"If we can't have a united Ireland, then we can't have a united British Kingdom. Why should I, as an Irish citizen, be compelled to live under British rule in my own country?"
All their engagements had been "good and positive and frank and cordial". Mr Blair had read the recent Sinn Fein discussion document, A Bridge into the Future. Mr Adams confirmed that the demand for a united Ireland had been raised. In a public lecture at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, the Sinn Fein president said Mr Blair had told them the status quo had to be changed and the question was how much change.
"What we have said to him is that we want absolute change. We have said to him that `We wish you well, we want you to be the last British Prime Minister with jurisdiction in Ireland (cheers and applause).
"I made the point half-jokingly the first time we went to Downing Street. The waiting-room has portraits of different English statesmen, Lloyd George, Balfour and Gladstone, that it seems to me a very strange English custom that they put portraits of all of their failures up in their front room.
"I wasn't just jesting, I was trying to show the different cultural values, because, of course, these were great statesmen in terms of English interests. In terms of what England or Britain or the Empire represented, these were great leaders. But as far as Ireland is concerned they are the people that partitioned the island, that have given us suppression, that have brought about the type of policies which continue even to today."
The crowd applauded Mr Adams's welcome for the new Bloody Sunday inquiry. "For Mr Blair to totally repudiate the Widgery Report was a courageous thing for him to do. It was a decent thing for him to do." Earlier he said Ms Roisin McAliskey's release was also "a positive step".