Blair: 'IRA must disband immediately'

Tony Blair signalled the start of a new phase in the Northern Ireland peace process yesterday by telling republicans emphatically that the IRA must go out of business.

The Prime Minister visited Belfast to deliver the message that no more progress could be made "with the IRA half in, half out of this process". Although he did not echo Unionist demands in stipulating that nothing less than the IRA disbanding would suffice, he made a lengthy and reasoned case that the spectre of the IRA no longer gave Sinn Fein negotiating leverage.

Instead, he argued, IRA activities sustained hardline Unionist intransigence and thwarted moderate Unionists who wanted the Good Friday Agreement to work.

Mr Blair said: "I believe that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness want the Agreement to work. I think they have taken huge risks to try to bury the past. But the crunch is the crunch. There is no parallel track left – the fork in the road has finally come."

Mr Blair added a new phrase and indeed concept to the lexicon of the peace process when he spoke of "acts of completion". In return for the divorce of Sinn Fein from paramilitarism, he held out the prospect of Government action on normalisation, which Sinn Fein continually advocates.

"Should real change occur," the Prime Minister said, normalisation and other measures would be effected by the Government "in its entirety and not in stages but together".

The new Blair approach was hailed on most sides as a bold initiative aimed at rescuing the peace process. Although much of the Agreement remains intact, the Belfast Assembly and its executive were suspended on Monday.

Their resurrection can only be envisaged after some major moves have been made, with most of the pressure on republicans to persuade Unionists to go back into government with Sinn Fein.

Martin McGuinness, speaking in Belfast before Mr Blair delivered his speech, said he did not believe any of the armed groups would disband in the present circumstances. But he went on to suggest that Number 10 and republican leaders may have explored some of these issues in private.

A BBC opinion poll found only 25 per cent of supporters of David Trimble's Ulster Unionists favoured a renewed coalition involving Sinn Fein. The survey also indicated that substantial gains have been made by Sinn Fein and the Rev Ian Paisley.