Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams today dismissed reports that the Northern Ireland parties were poised to make a deal this week to secure the Good Friday Agreement.
The West Belfast MP, emerging from a meeting at Stormont with the new Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid, was sceptical about weekend reports that the IRA was preparing to seal its weapons dumps as part of a deal to bolster the peace process.
‘‘I think it is most interesting that you hear the speculation from such august republican periodicals as The Sunday Times and from such insiders about the IRA at David Trimble,’’ he said after a one-hour meeting with the new Northern Ireland Secretary.
‘‘I wonder if this could be Mr Trimble getting his retaliation in first?
‘‘Mr Trimble knows the work that has to be done on all of the issues - the whole issue of policing which is of course the responsibility of the British Government, the whole matter of demilitarisation and what is effectively bothersome remilitarisation of the British forces.
‘‘There are other issues that need to be sorted out - not least the abuse of power by the First Minister (Mr Trimble) and of course the whole question of the weapons. So there is a lot of work to be done before these issues can be resolved.’’
Mr Adams, who was accompanied to the meeting by Sinn Fein MLAs Pat Doherty, Michelle Gildernew and Conor Murphy, said the delegation had raised a number of issues.
He said that he had emphasised to Dr Reid that he had the legislative power to compel First Minister Trimble to lift his sanctions against Sinn Fein ministers in the Stormont Executive.
The Sinn Fein leader also stressed that there needed to be ‘‘huge progress’’ made on the issues of policing and the scaling down of army bases if the current round of negotiations involving the Prime Minister Tony Blair were to succeed.
The meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary marked the first contact Dr Reid has had with the Province’s parties.
Dr Reid was also due to meet the nationalist SDLP, the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists, the anti Good Friday Agreement Northern Ireland Unionist and cross community Alliance Party before lunchtime.
He will also meet the other parties including the Ulster Unionists this afternoon as well as the Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman Andrew Mackay.