'Defining moment' for NI accord

Battle begins to save NI's power-sharing executive

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has said the coming week will determine if the Good Friday Agreement will "live or die".

The West Belfast MP described the Ulster Unionist Council's forthcoming vote on returning to the powersharing executive as a "defining moment".

His comments came as UUP leader David Trimble began to persuade his party colleagues to put to the test the IRA offer to put its arms beyond use.

But even as the Mr Trimble's campaign got under way, he was accused of "digging the grave of unionism" by the leader of the anti-agreement Democratic Unionist Party, Ian Paisley.

On Thursday, the UUP leader threw his weight behind the restoration of the suspended executive, saying he had received the assurances he needed to recommend the IRA offer to his party's ruling council.

The meeting of the 860-member Ulster Unionist Council, scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed for a week until 27 May to give Mr Trimble and his supporters time to win over anti-agreement unionists in his party who remain opposed to the deal.

Both the British and Irish governments had hoped to see the power-sharing executive reinstated on Monday 22 May.

Gerry Adams: Anti-agreement unionists will never be assured

Mr Adams said it was unlikely that anti-agreement unionists could be comforted by assurances from anybody about the IRA's statement.

"If it were possible for me to get the IRA to surrender, to march heads bowed without clothing to Glengall Street (UUP headquarters), pulling behind them containers of IRA weapons, which we then get these naked IRA volunteers to break with their own heads, having shot each other and then disbanded, Mr Donaldson would perhaps be looking for something else."

He appealed to all parties to be "very measured" over the coming days.

Mr Trimble faces an uphill struggle to bring his party with him as well as having to overcome opposition from other unionist parties who are actively campaigning against a "yes" vote.

Five UUP MPs, William Ross, William Thompson, Martin Smyth, Roy Beggs and Jeffrey Donaldson, have written to delegates to Ulster Unionist Council in an attempt to persuade them to oppose the proposals.

DUP leader Ian Paisley refused to say whether his party's ministers would retake their seats in the executive if the UUP voted for devolved government.

Speaking at a press conference at Stormont, he accused Mr Trimble of becoming a salesman for the IRA.

"The hole which Mr Trimble has dug for himself and the party, he will bury himself in."

Northern Ireland's political institutions were suspended by the government in February during the dispute between the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein about IRA arms and continued power-sharing.

David Trimble had given his party a commitment that he would resign from the executive if the IRA had not started decommissioning.