Sinn Féin meet Blair for crisis talks

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have held crisis talks at Downing Street with the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The breakfast time meeting on Tuesday morning was arranged at Sinn Fein's request in the wake of the announcement made by the Ulster Unionist Party to initiate a phased out withdrawal from the Northern Ireland Executive after their motion to exclude Sinn Féin failed.

Speaking after the 90-minute meeting in which the Secretary of State Dr John Reid attended, Mr Adams said the onus was on all the pro-agreement parties to save the Agreement: “We still have a lot of work to do for all of those who are committed to the Good Friday Agreement. Our focus will be to try and save that Agreement and ensure the process doesn’t collapse. Whether we do that or not will depend upon how collectively we will be able to apply ourselves to our obligations and responsibilities.”

In the Northern Ireland Assembly two motions by the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party to exclude Sinn Féin from the power-sharing executive both failed.

Following the defeat of the motion, UUP leader David Trimble announced that the party would boycott meetings of the executive and withdraw its ministers from the assembly.

The imminent withdrawal of the UUP, currently the largest party in the power-sharing executive, means the institutions will now have to be suspended by the Northern Ireland secretary.

The secretary of state Dr John Reid has this option to step in and suspend the institutions before, or immediately after, the Ulster Unionists withdraw or resign, thereby creating an open-ended suspension and review.

Alternatively he can allow the institutions to collapse which would dissolve the assembly and indicate fresh elections. (AMcE)