Expulsion for DUP members who contact SF - Paisley

Any Democratic Unionist caught making contact with Sinn Féin will be expelled, party leader the Rev Ian Paisley warned today…

Any Democratic Unionist caught making contact with Sinn Féin will be expelled, party leader the Rev Ian Paisley warned today.

The fierce opponent of the Belfast Agreement also insisted it was time to scrap the four-year-old accord and start again.

With the Irish and British governments frantically trying to restore devolution in Northern Ireland, Mr Paisley pledged that the DUP will not negotiate with Sinn Féin while the IRA holds on to its weapons.

At his party's annual conference in Belfast, he said: "We will not sit down and negotiate with the representatives of terrorism."

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The power-sharing Assembly at Stormont has been suspended since an alleged IRA spy-ring inside the Government was uncovered last month.

More round-table talks between the political parties are planned as Dublin and London bid to restore battered confidence in the peace process.

But the Democratic Unionists have boycotted negotiations, and Mr Paisley cautioned that indirect contact with republicans would not be tolerated.

Before addressing delegates he told BBC Radio Ulster: "Any member of the DUP who would enter into dialogue, communications or making bargains with Sinn Féin would be looked upon by the DUP as a traitor."

In his speech to the party faithful, Mr Paisley savaged Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble for continuing to back the Agreement.

The North Antrim MP said: "Mr Trimble has stuck to the job of destroying the union and making Ulster the mere plaything of Dublin and the republican elements of the British Labour Party."

The rival UUP chief's claims to have removed the State's constitutional claim to Northern Ireland is also bogus, Mr Paisley said. Delegates were also told bombings and shootings have increased since the peace deal was signed in April 1998.

With paramilitary prisoners out of jail early and the Royal Ulster Constabulary consigned to history, the DUP leader insisted the Agreement document had totally failed.

He warned Prime Minister Tony Blair not to try and "push the Agreement down the throats of true democrats who are not prepared to bend the knee to the insatiable demands of IRA/Sinn Fein."

Mr Paisley added: "Of course there can be an alternative. That is why we are insisting that the basis for talks must be built on the foundations of a truly democratic agenda."

PA