US pressures Blair on Cory

US presidential candidate John Kerry has accused the British Government of threatening police reforms in Northern Ireland over delays in publishing a dossier on four murders, it emerged last night.

The Democrat was one of seven powerful US senators who demanded Prime Minister Tony Blair immediately discloses the long-awaited Cory report into killings dogged by allegations of security force collusion.

In a letter to Downing Street they hit out at the continued secrecy over the findings in the cases which include the shooting of Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane.