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Adams hopeful on N Irish arms row

BELFAST: Irish republican leader Gerry Adams was quoted on Sunday as saying he was confident a solution could be found to the row over guerrilla weapons that has raised the spectre of a return to violence in Northern Ireland.

Britain has threatened to suspend the province's two-month-old coalition government and reimpose direct rule from London unless Irish Republican Army guerrillas make it clear they are ready to begin handing over its weapons.

Sinn Fein's Adams told Ireland on Sunday newspaper he was sure all sides would overcome the current impasse.

"I am convinced, after more than a week of exhaustive discussions that this crisis can be resolved," Adams said.

"I believe that decommissioning is an essential part of the peace process. I believe it is achievable, but not in the way that is currently being demanded."

Pro-British Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble challenged the IRA to show enough "courage" to give up their weapons after more than 30 years fighting British forces and Protestant paramilitaries.

"The fault lies squarely with them. So does the opportunity to rescue the agreement," Trimble told the Sunday Life newspaper. "They have the chance. Do they have the courage (to disarm)?"

MORE ADAMS-TRIMBLE TALKS PLANNED

Trimble, head of Northern Ireland cabinet, held urgent talks Adams on Saturday to discuss disarmament.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said Adams was intending to hold further talks with Trimble, the IRA and other key players involved "right up until they were either successful or the institutions were suspended".

Trimble has threatened to resign as First Minister on February 12th - the eve of a crucial Ulster Unionist Council meeting - if Britain does not suspend the home rule government in retaliation for the IRA refusing to disarm.

Analysts say a breakdown in the peace process would boost hardliners on both sides and bring fresh violence closer.

Around 3,600 people died in three decades of the Northern Ireland conflict. A peace deal was signed in 1998 but the chapter on disarming the IRA and Unionist paramilitary groups is vague and leaves room for different interpretations.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday appealed to both sides to continue the efforts for peace, saying that any failure would constitute a betrayal of the people of Northern Ireland.

"I'm not speaking in anger. I'm not making demands. I can't make anyone do what they don't want to do," Blair told a Labour Party conference in Blackpool. "If we let this chance for peace go...then we will have failed the people that we serve, and that would be the biggest betrayal of all."

LEGAL CHALLENGE TO SUSPENSION

Sinn Fein, closely linked to the IRA, said it may consider a legal challenge to Britain's suspension of the home-rule administration, but would not go down this route until the diplomacy road had reached a logjam.

Party chairman Mitchell McLaughlin said on Sunday that collapsing the home-rule government would be counterproductive and questioned the legality of such a move.

"It makes an already difficult problem and impossible problem," McLaughlin told BBC television. "There is no legal basis, none whatsoever, for (Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary) Peter Mandelson calling a review or suspending these institutions."

On Saturday the IRA repeated its commitment to the flagging peace process, but said it would not be bullied into giving up its guns by Britain or the pro-British Ulster Unionists.

In a statement the ITA acknowledged for the first time that the arms issue had to be "dealt with in an acceptable way" and "was an essential part of a genuine peace process".-Reuters