Pressure on IRA to save peace deal

The IRA is under the most intense pressure yet to state clearly that it will cease paramilitary activities to break the impasse in the Northern Ireland peace process.

The United States joined London and Dublin in urging republicans to improve on an IRA statement which all three governments regard as failing to signify that the organisation will renounce violence.

Tony Blair has pressed the IRA to come up with "acts of completion" in response to an unpublished Anglo-Irish document which makes concessions to republican concerns.

Last night there was hope, but no certainty, that an IRA statement this week was not the organisation's last word. The statement was dismissed by London and Dublin as inadequate and ambiguous.

If the IRA is prepared to issue a more acceptable statement, then early movement is possible. If the deadlock cannot be cleared up within days the unofficial timetable leading to elections next month could be seriously disrupted.

Yesterday, the Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness held talks with British and Irish government representatives. They also met the US special envoy, Richard Haass, who emphasised American backing for the stance of London and Dublin.

Mr Haass said later: "I made my case in a way which I think is realistic. I would never come here and ask people what was impossible. They've got to decide what they're able to do and what they're prepared to do.

"If we can't bring this to completion, then I think it has consequences that are obviously quite unfortunate. There is an extraordinary opportunity but you never know how long opportunities sit there."

Mr Adams pressed for publication of the London-Dublin document, saying: "It is sitting there. Why isn't it published? They go down to the wire, they hardball, they go all of this distance. Let the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister let the people decide on all of this.

Hardline Unionists called for Sinn Fein to be cut out of the process. The Ulster Unionist MP Martin Smyth said: "The governments should now leave Sinn Fein/IRA behind."