Adams meeting Reid to voice fears over 'wreckers'

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams was due to meet Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid today to voice fears over the future of the political process.

Mr Adams said he was concerned about the efforts of anti-Good Friday Agreement unionists to undermine and wreck the multi-party accord.

The meeting comes as the power-sharing Stormont Assembly resumes after its summer recess and enters a fresh period of political uncertainty.

With hard-liners forcing a special meeting of the ruling Ulster Unionist Council in a fortnight, the political institutions formed under the Good Friday Agreement could again come under threat.

The Assembly is due to dissolve in March to prepare for fresh elections in May, but Ulster Unionist leader and Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble is under pressure to pull out of government with Sinn Féin and spark early elections.

Allegations of IRA involvement in Colombia and the break-in at a Special Branch office in Castlereagh, together with bitter sectarian violence at Belfast’s interfaces, have led to growing disenchantment with the political process.

Sinn Féin has accused unionists of trying to manufacture a political crisis, pointing to the fact that police chiefs have blamed loyalists for the majority of attacks in flashpoint areas.

Mr Adams is planning meetings with Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and US President George Bush’s special advisor on Northern Ireland, Richard Haas in the near future.

He is also seeking discussions with Mr Trimble, who returns to his Stormont desk after attending the Earth Summit in South Africa.

Inside the Assembly chamber members will debate a motion by Sinn Féin calling on the Assembly to unite in rejecting sectarian violence.

An amendment has been tabled by the Ulster Unionist Party condemning republican and loyalist paramilitary violence and calling on the Assembly to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

It is expected to be the first of many stormy debates as the Assembly enters its final term.

With months to go until the end of its four-year term, Assembly members face a very busy legislative calendar, with a number of key bills being given their first reading this week.