The IRA would "respond imaginatively" if unionists and the British government implemented the Belfast Agreement, Mr Gerry Adams said in an interview today.
"Clearly if a British government is serious about completing its obligation then it puts a huge onus on republicans to be imaginative," the Sinn Féin president told the
Guardian
.
"If the British Government is wanting the IRA to do big things then the British Government, I think, will have to do big things to create the conditions wherethere's a potential to get the IRA to move," he said.
He was speaking after the British and Irish governments agreed plans for an all-out push to restore devolution in Northern Ireland. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said after the meeting that a desire existed to have all outstanding issues in the Agreement dealt with once and for all.
Mr Adams says he wants Tony Blair to give a guarantee that the Government will not suspend the power-sharing institutions at Stormont again. He also wants to see a full introduction of the Patten reforms on policing and a scaling down of Britain's military presence.
But Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble insists that the onus is on republicans to make the first move by announcing that the IRA is to get rid ofall of its weapons.
In a speech to party members in Co Down, Mr Trimble accused Sinn Féin of political manoeuvring against a backdrop of continuing IRA activity.
PA