Pressure mounting over ban on Ministers - Adams

Sinn Fein leadership is facing pressure from within its own ranks to retaliate over sanctions against its ministers in the Northern Ireland executive, Gerry Adams claimed tonight.

The party leader hinted after a meeting with Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon that he had faced calls for his party to withdraw from the executive in protest at the Ulster Unionist ban on Education Minister Martin McGuinness and Health Minister Bairbre de Brun from attending cross-border body meetings with the Irish government.