Adams confirms long-delayed trip to Cuba

Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams is to visit Cuban President Fidel Castro next week on a trip that Irish-American supporters say they oppose.

Mr Adams, whose IRA-linked party plays down its socialist politics during its fundraising tours in the United States, will leave Ireland on Sunday for the four-day trip.

In a statement, Sinn Fein said Mr Adams and a few party deputies plan to meet Mr Castro and other government representatives, unveil a plaque in honor of the IRA's 1981 prison hunger strike, and visit a local hospital and university.

Mr Adams originally planned to visit Cuba in October, but delayed the visit in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terror strikes.

His closest ally in the US Congress, Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said he had advised Mr Adams to ditch the idea.

The visit is also expected to refocus attention on the cases of three suspected IRA activists being held without charge in Colombia, where they were arrested in August on suspicion of training Marxist rebels.

Among them is Niall Connolly, Sinn Fein's Havana-based representative for Latin America.

Mr Adams initially denied that Connolly was a Sinn Fein official, then said Connolly had been appointed to the post without his knowledge.