Sinn Fein should back new police service - Bush envoy

US President George W Bush’s special envoy to Northern Ireland has urged Sinn Fein to give its backing to the North’s new police service.

Ambassador Richard Haas, who is also director of foreign policy planning at the US State Department, said it was time for Sinn Fein to demonstrate their wholehearted support for the peace process by becoming a ‘‘full participant’’ in the Good Friday Agreement.

Sinn Fein has declined to take up its two places on the new Police Service of Northern Ireland’s 19-member Policing Board, complaining that the successor to the RUC is still insufficiently accountable.

But in an interview for the BBC Hardtalk programme on News 24, to be broadcast on Monday, Mr Haas argued the time had come for Sinn Fein to move beyond that issue.

‘‘What you’re hearing from Americans, even Americans who have been full square supporters of Sinn Fein, is the time is past for that. You now have to become normal.

‘‘You have to become a true political party. You have to become a full partner, a full participant in every aspect of the Good Friday Agreement, including making the new police force work.’’

Mr Haas said the US administration was ‘‘somewhat more wary’’ of the IRA following the claims of its links to the rebel Farc movement in Colombia.

Although the IRA had maintained its ceasefire in Northern Ireland, the US was still concerned to ‘‘encourage the IRA through Sinn Fein ... to get out of the paramilitary business.’’

He said: ‘‘It is not enough to keep to the narrow letter of the ceasefire. What we want to see is the IRA, and for that matter all the paramilitaries, stick to the spirit of the ceasefire, and the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement, and that means paramilitaries becoming a thing of the past.’’

He added that there was ‘‘widespread unhappiness’’ with indications that the IRA continues to ‘‘make preparations for violence.’’