Unease at policing talks increases

Failure to achieve a policing service acceptable to the broad Northern Ireland community would be a blunder of "monumental proportions", the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has warned.

A Sinn Fein delegation led by Mr Adams met the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, for over 90 minutes at Castle Buildings, Stormont, yesterday and negotiations are to continue today, chiefly involving senior British and Irish officials and Sinn Fein and the SDLP.

London and Dublin sources are growing increasingly concerned that time is running out for a deal on policing, demilitarisation and the putting of paramilitary arms beyond use. Policing is proving the most intractable of these problems.

It is understood that the main difficulty is over a Sinn Fein demand for the Police Act to be amended.

It is believed that the British government is prepared to hold a review on policing, chaired by the Oversight Commissioner, Mr Tom Constantine; but that it is not willing to change the legislation ahead of the outcome of such a review.

Sinn Fein, according to sources, is pressing for commitments to amend the legislation ahead of the review.

Mr Adams said there was little point in the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, travelling to Northern Ireland when there was still a substantial gap between what Sinn Fein was demanding on policing and what the British government was prepared to concede.

British and Irish sources have stated that a visit from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and Mr Blair could be expected only when a deal was imminent.