Sinn Fein and Reid meeting over policing plans

Sinn Fein are today meeting Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid to study policing plans which could help decide the fate of the peace process.

A party delegation arrived at Hillsborough Castle, County Down to be shown the as-yet-unpublished police implementation plan.

The meeting came amid signs that the British and Irish Governments may have to extend Monday’s deadline for a response to their ‘‘take it or leave it’’ package aimed at breaking the latest log jam.

Sinn Fein Fermanagh South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew repeated calls for the plan and other unpublished documents to be put in the public domain.

She said: ‘‘We will be pushing John Reid to publish the Government’s proposals on the implementation plan for policing and criminal justice.

‘‘It’s not good enough that we get a look at the document, we need to see the document published that everyone can get a look at them and take a view then of how we can proceed.’’

The criminal justice implementation plan is not expected until the end of the month but Dr Reid has been talking pro-agreement parties through the policing document as part of the delicate diplomatic effort to sustain the troubled devolved regime at Stormont.

The Governments had so far refused to put the document on general release, fearing that doing so ahead of any IRA move on arms would set the unionist community’s face firmly against the proposals.

Sinn Fein is not likely to give its final assessment on the broader blueprint for progress published on Wednesday until after a widely anticipated IRA statement of intent.

However the Governments’ carefully closet timetable could be knocked off course after David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party indicated that it would be unable to show its hand by Monday, the deadline set down for a response.

Sinn Fein today again suggested that it too needed more time.

Asked about the deadline, Ms Gildernew said: ‘‘We’re not going to get into the business of whether we accept or reject the documents.

‘‘This is an ongoing process. We need to see the detail of the documents before we can progress with the negotiations and we don’t have enough detail at this stage.

‘‘We’re not the only party suggesting that.’’

The latest moves follow the resignation of Mr Trimble as first minister of the power-sharing executive on June 30, because of the IRA’s refusal to give up its guns.

His withdrawal triggered a six-week countdown for the first minister to be reinstalled or assembly elections to be called.

However a suspension of the entire regime is considered more likely in the absence of a new agreement.

Meanwhile Cyril Ramaphosa, the former African National Congress Secretary General who has twice inspected IRA weapons dumps under a deal struck last year, has said he believes the organisation plans to disarm.

Mr Ramaphosa’s comments are recorded on BBC News 24’s Hardtalk programme, due to be broadcast next week.