Adams: IRA will not exist one day

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has said that he believes he will "see the day when there is no IRA".

Mr Adams was speaking in the US, where he is on a week-long visit. He is due to meet the US Special Envoy Mitchell Reiss in Washington on Wednesday.

Mr Reiss said Friday that Sinn Féin must cut all links with the IRA.

He told Reuters News Agency: "It's hard to understand how a European country in the year 2005 can have a private army associated with a political party."

Mr Adams, along with other political leaders from the North, has not been invited to take part in the annual White House St. Patrick's Day ceremony.

He said that he was disappointed but not offended that he was not invited to meet President Bush at the White House on Thursday.