US deal allows SF into govt - unionists

The US administration is gearing up for a deal in February which will allow Sinn Fein back into government in Northern Ireland, it was claimed today.

Hardline Ulster Unionist MP David Burnside, speaking after a meeting with Richard Haass, President Bush’s special ambassador to Northern Ireland, claimed the deal would involve republican commitments to the standing down of the IRA.

But Mr Burnside said that promises of disarmament would not be enough to persuade unionists to return to the power-sharing administration with republicans.

He added that reports of IRA weapons training in Colombia, involvement in the break-in at a Special Branch Office at Castlereagh Police Station in east Belfast and claims of an IRA spy ring at Stormont, meant there was no prospect of unionists rejoining an Executive which included Sinn Fein.

“If he (Mr Haass) thinks there is any chance of unionists considering that with events in Colombia, Castlereagh and the spy ring, he is wrong. I can see no circumstances in the foreseeable future where the UUP can contemplate going into an Executive with Sinn Fein.”

The anti-Agreement MP also told Mr Haass that unionists would almost certainly leave the Northern Ireland Policing Board if the British government changed the law to allow ex-terrorist prisoners to join the district policing partnerships (DPPs).

“He didn’t appear to understand the strength of feeling on that subject. I told him the British, Irish and US governments were not exerting enough pressure on Sinn Fein/IRA.”

Mr Burnside called on the moderate nationalist SDLP to cut links with Sinn Fein and help re-establish the Northern Ireland Assembly by voting to exclude them from the Executive.

He said that he was in full agreement with Mr Haass on the need to go ahead with elections in May, irrespective of whether the Assembly was up and running again.

“The ambassador was keen for elections which I welcomed. I hope that elections will go ahead because the present institutions have to be modified and changed.”

Mr Burnside’s visit was one of a series of trips by Northern Ireland politicians to the US capital to give their views on the present political crisis.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is travelling to Washington tomorrow for three days of political briefings with senior politicians. During his visit he will meet Mr Haass.

Speaking ahead of the visit, Mr Adams said his primary focus would be on the need to reinstate the institutions as soon as possible.