Speculation mounts over IRA arms

Secretary of State John Reid has called for decommissioning

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams is to deliver a "significant speech" as speculation mounts about a possible move on the arms issue.

It comes against the backdrop of the power-sharing executive looks set to collapse after unionists ministers resigned over the absence of IRA decommissioning.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Adams admitted one of three Irishmen detained in Colombia was Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba.

Sinn Fein has previously denied a party link.

Gerry Adams: Due to make speech

Meanwhile, paramilitaries in Northern Ireland have been told that the government's response would not be "grudging or ungenerous" to real and actual decommissioning of weapons.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid issued an appeal to republican and loyalist groups on Monday to put their arms beyond use, to move the province into a new era.

The power-sharing executive at Stormont faces collapse following the withdrawal of five unionist ministers last week.

The Ulster Unionist Party and the DUP resigned their positions in response to the failure of the IRA to decommission.

The Stormont assembly will collapse at midnight on Thursday if the unionist ministers fail to return.

But, both the UUP and the DUP have said they will not sit in government with Sinn Fein in the absence of actual decommissioning.

I do not underestimate the difficulties for paramilitary groups in resolving the issue of arms

Dr John Reid

Speaking at the Society of Editors Conference in Belfast on Monday, Dr Reid said that the "common ground" created recently now needed to be built upon.

Generous

"I do not underestimate the difficulties for paramilitary groups in resolving the issue of arms," he said.

"So I want to say to the paramilitaries: If you are able to do what the people of Northern Ireland want so desperately - to put arms beyond use and to take politics on to a new plane - then I believe you will not find the response from this government, from the Irish Government, the American administration and the whole international community to be grudging or ungenerous."

However, he went on to warn all sides in the weapons issue that if they did not "make the final transition to democratic means", they would face the wrath of people worldwide.

Caution

Dr Reid had a meeting with the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams on Monday morning. This followed a 30-minute discussion between Mr Adams and the UUP leader David Trimble.

Amid a flurry of activity behind-the-scenes, the secretary of state is expected to speak to a range of other political leaders during the day, including David Trimble.

On Sunday, Mr Adams confirmed that he had been in talks with the IRA.

There has been mounting speculation that a gesture by the IRA on its weapons dumps is close.

Republicans insist there is a context in which IRA decommissioning will take place.

They need guarantees from unionists that they will no longer threaten to bring down or impede the operation of the executive and north-south bodies.

They also want the government to guarantee the institutions, deliver more concessions on policing, scale down army bases and activities in republican heartlands, and achieve equality.

Dr Reid said today that the task facing all parties was to break the log-jam which had held back the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.