Bush urges end to violence

Mr Ahern was welcomed to the White House by the US president

US President George W Bush has called for a "permanent end to all political violence" in Northern Ireland.

President Bush was speaking as he welcomed Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to the White House, following the traditional St Patrick's Day handing over of the Shamrock on Wednesday.

He added: "There is no place for paramilitaries in a democratic society."

It is thought Mr Ahern briefed the president on the on-going efforts by the Irish and British governments to re-establish the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland.

Representatives of Northern Ireland's main political parties were meeting President Bush at the White House during a special reception.

The St Patrick's week events come as unionists demand sanctions against Sinn Fein amid allegations of IRA activity.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair has been toasted in Washington for his efforts in the political process.

The American Ireland Fund award was picked up by Secretary of State Paul Murphy, who said the Good Friday Agreement still offered a way out of the conflict of the past.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the Bush administration wanted movement on paramilitarism.

Political stalemate

However, the notion of expelling Sinn Fein was not part of his discussion with the US Special Envoy, Mitchell Reiss, on Tuesday.

Mr Durkan said people in the United States were "fed up and let down" by the failure of unionists to work the Good Friday Agreement and the failure of all paramilitaries to end their activity.

On the eve of St Patrick's Day celebrations, he said: "It is not surprising then, that the focus of this St Patrick's Day has been on the bit of the Agreement that is working - the policing arrangements.

"Despite the DUP trying to wreck policing and Sinn Fein trying to duck it, the SDLP is getting in there and delivering the Patten reforms."

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern are to hold talks next week and the Irish prime minister said he hoped more progress could be made to resolve the political stalemate.

On Tuesday, Sinn Fein said it was not under pressure from the White House to sign up to policing and get the IRA to stop illegal activity.

The party's Martin McGuinness denied the claim by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.

Sinn Fein took out an advertisement in the New York Times on Monday condemning the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

In the $25,000 advertisement, the party said it wanted policing but insisted the new service was deeply flawed.

The political institutions in Northern Ireland were suspended in October 2002 amid allegations of IRA intelligence-gathering in the Stormont government.