Only peaceful SF can return to power-sharing: Blair

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that Sinn Féin could only return to power sharing government in Northern Ireland as long as it was committed to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.

Mr Blair said steps taken by his Government to scale back the military presence in the North following the IRA’s announcement that it had ended the arms struggle were fully justified in security terms.

His comments, following meetings with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley, were intended to reassure worried unionists alarmed at the speed of the government’s response.