Blair urges IRA to save peace process

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has issued a fresh call for IRA to take a big step forward in order to save the Northern Ireland peace process.

In an interview in Friday's Irish Times newspaper, Mr Blair stopped short of making a formal demand for IRA disbandment but made it clear paramilitaries can no longer use force in order to achieve political goals.

He added there was no point in "inching forward any more" and that a big step was needed so that politics in Northern Ireland could as least try to move forward without the murky element of paramilitarism.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive was suspended for the fourth time last month following allegations of IRA intelligence gathering in the Northern Ireland Office.

Mr Blair's comments were made in the wake of another damaging event to the already fragile political process. A civil servant was arrested on Wednesday by police as part of an investigation into alleged IRA espionage inside the Northern Ireland Office, which were extended to the offices of David Trimble and Mark Durkan. The man was later released without charge.

However, despite the difficulties Mr Blair ruled out renegotiating the Agreement, insisting the parties will keep coming back to the same issues to be addressed in the same way.

"If there is an impasse as a result of confusion over paramilitary and political ends, there is no way I can cook up some solution with the Irish Government and slam it down. It is not going to work."

In a similarly tough message to loyalists Mr Blair warned that paramilitary acts must cease completely and signalled the time has come to treat paramilitaries as criminals.

He told the Irish Times he was "physically sick" when he heard loyalists had crucified a young man at the weekend.

He said: "Let me make it clear that the activities of the loyalists paramilitaries are not just totally and completely contrary to law, but contrary to any decent sense of humanity.

"These people have to realise we are going to come down on them with every single bit of force and authority we possibly can," he added.

(AMcE)