Ahern and Adams hold 'frank' meeting

The Taoiseach Mr Ahern, and the President of Sinn Féin Mr Gerry Adams, held what was described as a "frank, positive meeting" at Government Buildings this afternoon.

The Sinn Féin leader called on the Irish and British governments to break the impasse in the peace process and to stop "attacking his party" and "get down to solving the problems which are holding up progress."

The two men met at a time when relations between the Irish and British governments and the republican movement are at their most strained for some time.

To make progress everyone has to give and take but time is of the essence. The political parties need to get on, stop the rhetoric and get on with it. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern

The meeting followed yesterday's speech by Mr Ahern at the Fianna Fáil Easter Rising commemoration in Arbour Hill, in which he called for all "private armies" to stand down.

Mr Ahern said that while he remained fully committed to the peace process, it was time to end political "rhetoric" and move forward with talks.

"To make progress everyone has to give and take but time is of the essence. The political parties need to get on, stop the rhetoric and get on with it," he said. The time for maintaining "polite fictions and Chinese walls" was now passed, he said.

Although not mentioning Sinn Féin by name, Mr Ahern appeared to criticise the party when he insisted talking was a "waste of time" while certain conditions set out in the Belfast Agreement have yet to be fulfilled. He said there were still some "dangerous people" hiding behind the mask of political acceptability.

"Everybody has continued to talk about the peace process but we're not following that up with the necessary actions," he said.

For his part, Mr Adams was expected to express his anger at what he will surely see as electioneering on the part of the Fianna Fáil leader ahead of the June local and European elections.

Last week, Mr Adams attacked both the Irish and British Governments over their decision to suspend talks in the wake of the report from the Independent Monitoring Commission. The talks were due to take place near London this week and were aimed at finding a way to break the political stalemate.

The IMC report claimed the Provisional IRA was still involved in paramilitary activity despite its ceasefire, and that senior Sinn Féin figures were at the core of its leadership. Sinn Féin dismissed the report and described the four members of the IMC as "poodles" and "securocrats".

The four members of the commission are the former Secretary of the Department of Justice, Mr  Joe Brosnan, former Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice, ex-Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism squad chief Mr John Grieve, and Mr Richard Kerr, who was formerly a deputy director of the CIA.

The Taoiseach will meet SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan on Friday and will hold talks with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, this weekend.