Alderdice intervention deplored by Andrews and nationalist parties

The call by Alliance Party leader, Lord Alderdice, for Prof Mary McAleese to consider withdrawing from the presidential race has been deplored by the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr David Andrews.

And Mr Martin McGuinness, condemning the leaking of confidential Department of Foreign Affairs documents, said the Fianna Fail/PD candidate had played an important role in helping re-establish the IRA ceasefire.

The Alliance leader said yesterday Prof McAleese should consider whether remaining in the presidential race would assist or damage the peace process. "It is now clear that if the people of the Republic were to elect Prof McAleese, parties, from the SDLP through to the unionists, would regard it as an unhelpful contribution to peace and reconciliation," he said.

"Similarly, her failure to be elected would clearly create turmoil and political distrust in the Republic. The only way of resolving this would be for her to consider withdrawing at this stage."

Mr Seamus Mallon of the SDLP said it was "offensively arrogant" of Lord Alderdice to believe he could speak for his party on the issue. "We utterly refute Lord Alderdice's stated view that the election of any candidate to the Presidency could adversely affect peace and reconciliation," he said.

At Stormont, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, complained of an "ongoing campaign of vilification against Mary McAleese". He said Prof McAleese, in her role as part of the Redemptorist Peace Mission, was a "key person" in helping "rebuild the peace process".

He had met her twice, once on a flight from London to Belfast, when he merely greeted her, and the second time at a formal meeting organised by the Peace Mission, which was also attended by Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, and other party members.

His understanding was that Prof McAleese was an SDLP supporter. "For people to suggest she is a Sinn Fein supporter is absolutely ridiculous," he said. "She made an important contribution as part of the Redemptorist Peace Mission. Someone like myself and Gerry Adams and others in Sinn Fein don't waste our time meeting people who are not important. Mary McAleese was important, as were the other people we were meeting," said Mr McGuinness.

He said that people who had spoken to Foreign Affairs officials must be "very frightened indeed" by the leak of Department documents. Such people, who had worked very hard for peace, potentially could be targeted by loyalist death squads.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr David Andrews, said Lord Alderdice's comments were "unhelpful and unwise".

Ms Liz O'Donnell, Minister of State at Foreign Affairs, said his comments were "quite unhelpful" and were a distraction from the Stormont talks.

The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, declined to make any comment on the Presidency but criticised the leaked document relating to Ms Brid Rodgers of the SDLP, which suggested that the SDLP might have a role in public appointments in Northern Ireland.

The memo indicated that the Anglo-Irish Secretariat and the SDLP had a totally unacceptable and possibly illegal function in such appointments, he complained.

While the SDLP's position is not to publicly favour any of the five presidential candidates, individual members have come out in defence of Prof McAleese. Dr Joe Hendron, the former MP for West Belfast, said he met Prof McAleese and the Redemptorist priest, Father Alex Reid, before the second IRA ceasefire when they were working to re-establish a cessation of violence.

Mr Hugh Carr, an SDLP member of Newry and Mourne Council, said: "The leaking of confidential material from the Department of Foreign Affairs sends a message to people in the North that the national interest is always subservient to the narrow and immediate political concerns of competing political elites in Dublin."