Sinn Fein 'will endorse police if Blair honours pledge'

Sinn Fein will endorse Northern Ireland’s new police service if Prime Minister Tony Blair honours pledges he made to toughen legislation, it was claimed today.

As the republican party’s chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin, urged Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble to be a “champion” of the Good Friday Agreement, he spelt out the conditions for backing the force.