Hopes dip for deal on the North

Hopes of an historic agreement in Northern Ireland dipped tonight after the republican leadership resisted demands by the Rev Ian Paisley to allow a weapons handover to be photographed.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are expected in Belfast tomorrow to make an announcement on the latest phase of the troubled process, but progress may have stopped just short of the deal needed to restore the power sharing executive at Stormont.

Virtually all the outstanding issues have been settled, but the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams insisted: “I do not believe the IRA will allow itself to be humiliated.”

Mr Paisley is holding out for photographic verification of the act of disarmament to be supervised by General John de Chastelain, head of the international decommissioning commission and witnessed by Protestant and Catholic churchmen.

General de Chastelain has renewed contact with the IRA for the first time since October last year.

Mr Adams and his party’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness have also had talks with the organisation which still controls a vast arsenal of guns and explosives hidden away in secret dumps.

Ministers in Belfast, London and Dublin believe the door has not been shut completely on a settlement but unless there is a last minute change of heart by the Provisionals or the DUP, then the chances of getting the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running could be put on hold indefinitely.

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern know that a DUP response will be critical.

Even though Sinn Féin said it was prepared to accept the political proposals from the British and Irish governments to reactivate power sharing, the signs did not look good.

Mr Adams said: “I recognise that some unionists do have genuine concerns about verification of arms being put beyond use but Ian Paisley has to recognise also that the IRA will not submit to a process of humiliation.

“I do not expect Ian Paisley or the DUP or the unionist paramilitaries to submit to such a process of humiliation.”