SF seeking urgent meeting with DUP

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness will demand a crisis summit with his co-leader in the Northern Ireland Assembly Peter Robinson in a attempt to save the power-sharing executive, it emerged today.

Republicans have accused the Democratic Unionist Party of doggedly refusing to work the Stormont parliament as the fall-out deepens over the devolution of policing and justice powers.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams warned that if agreement can not be reached then the institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement can no longer continue.

“This is not about Sinn Féin hyping things up,” he said.

“This is not a game of poker. If the institutions are not working, if they are not delivering, then they become pointless and unsustainable.”

Speaking outside a meeting of Sinn Féin’s Ard Chomhairle, Mr Adams insisted the talks between First Minister Mr Robinson and Deputy First Minister Mr McGuinness would be pivotal.

“This will be a critical and defining engagement,” he said.

In a clear warning that Sinn Féin was prepared to collapse Stormont, Mr Adams signalled his party would walk away unless outstanding sections of the Good Friday Agreement and St Andrews Agreement are implemented.

“If that is not possible, then no self-respecting public representative or political party would want to be part of nothing less than a charade,” he said.

Mr McGuinness spoke with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a senior official in Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s department last night as fears mounted over the future of devolution in the North.

Mr Adams stated both governments were guarantors to the agreements, not referees, and demanded they set down a date for policing and justice powers to be handed over from London.

Negotiations between the DUP and Sinn Féin on the contentious issue broke down last night. Mr Adams claimed the Democratic Unionists derailed the talks by demanding concessions on controls over Orange Order parades.

But DUP leader Mr Robinson said progress was being made and republicans were creating an unnecessary political crisis.

Sinn Féin’s Ard Chomhairle has drawn up a detailed brief for Mr McGuinness to inform the talks with Mr Robinson.

Mr Adams insisted the issues could be resolved.

The Sinn Féin president refused to reveal any deadlines for agreement but added people had a sense of the timeline involved.

Three years ago Sinn Féin backed the new policing arrangements in the North on condition the Assembly eventually took over political responsibility for law and order from Westminster.

But with unionists insisting that the conditions must be right before completing the transfer of the powers, and with Sinn Féin demanding they close a deal, the long-running dispute has now reached crisis point.

There is mounting speculation that the British and Irish governments will be forced to step in to salvage the process.