Keep peace process going, urges Blair

DOWNING STREET was last night braced for a backlash threatening the Ulster peace settlement after the killing of Rosemary Nelson.

Tony Blair underlined the anxiety by urging the nationalist community not to allow the peace process to be derailed by what he condemned as a "disgusting act of barbarity".

The Prime Minister said: "No effort will be spared in hunting down and bringing to justice those responsible for a senseless and despicable act of murder. The sole aim of the murderers is to remove any chance of reconciliation. They will not be allowed to succeed."

Mr Blair was in close touch with President Bill Clinton, who is hosting a reception for all the key players in the peace process at the White House in Washington to mark St Patrick's Day tomorrow.

The killing of Mrs Nelson was seen as a move to wreck the peace process by making it impossible for the IRA to go ahead with a symbolic gesture of arms decommissioning, which would remove the main stumbling block to setting up the power-sharing executive with the Ulster Unionist Party. Mr Clinton is expected to emphasise to Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, that some movement is needed now more than ever.

Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, said it was accepted by everyone the peace process was in crisis and the killing had made it worse. "I think this has deepened the crisis ... This is a very, very serious development," he said.

The Deputy First Minister of the Ulster Assembly, Seamus Mallon, speaking from Washington, said he was "shocked and disgusted" at a "mindless attack on peace". He said the peace process was all the more necessary now.

William Hague, the Conservative leader, joined the calls for restraint from both communities in Northern Ireland. "I have no doubt it was designed to derail people from the negotiations in Northern Ireland. I hope they will have the resolve to continue their work and not be deflected by people who still believe in violence," he said.

The Council of the Law Society of Northern Ireland held an emergency meeting last night to discuss Rosemary Nelson's killing. The president, Catherine Dixon, said solicitors had worked over many years of the Troubles to provide the best possible service to the entire community, and condemned the bombing as "utterly cowardly and a blatant attempt at intimidation of the profession".