Adams hits out at crime comments

Crime is not rampant, Gerry Adams says

There is no "rampant crime" in nationalist or republican communities, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has said.

He was replying to criticism of his party's refusal to endorse policing in the province by US special envoy Mitchell Reiss.

He said nationalist and republicans "despite not having had a proper police service have remained law abiding".

Mr Adams said that his party would not be "badgered" into accepting less than a "new beginning to policing".

In a recent article for the Irish Echo newspaper in the US Mr Reiss urged Sinn Fein to sign up to policing saying he feared "another year, at least, of lawlessness in republican and nationalist communities".

"The RUC was never a police service," Mr Adams said.

"It was a political paramilitary militia which engaged in the most disgraceful abuse of human rights which included torture and murder.

"Those who were at the heart of this malign force - the Special Branch - are still active within the new policing service."

The IRA said it had decommissioned in October

He said along with the British and Irish governments his party would a make "a serious effort to resurrect the government and institutions".

"The British government has given commitments on policing including the transfer of power," he said.

"I have made it clear that if the British honour their obligations, if the DUP agrees to share power and the model into which policing and justice will be transferred, then Sinn Fein will hold a special conference to debate this matter out fully to arrive at a democratically agreed position."

Meanwhile, the IRA has praised its members for abandoning the armed struggle in the wake of the organisation's historic decision to decommission its weapons.

In a New Year message the IRA said they remained committed to their republican objectives and endorsed the work of Sinn Fein.

The paramilitary group also called on all political leaders to work towards progress in 2006.

The statement - released through the republican newspaper An Phoblacht - is the first from the IRA since September when General John de Chastelain announced the organisation had put its arms beyond use.