Clinton hails IRA offer

Unionists have some tough talking to do

US President Bill Clinton says he believes the IRA's offer to put its arms beyond use heralds a breakthrough in the Northern Ireland peace process.

The American premier spoke to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams by phone on Saturday and praised the IRA for "reaching out" to unionists.

He said: "This is a very good day. The unionists still have to finally accept it but this idea of stowing the weapons and having the storage sites monitored I think is a way for both of them to achieve their previously stated aims."

But despite President Clinton's optimism, the political parties in Northern Ireland will spend the next few days in tense assessment of how the IRA's offer will affect the peace process.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson has already said Saturday's IRA statement offers a basis on which the province's devolved assembly can be re-started.

Clinton: Praised IRA move

But Northern Ireland politicians are divided about the significance of the move which followed new proposals from the British and Irish Governments designed to rekindle the peace process.

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble gave the IRA statement a cautious welcome, but said there were areas which still needed clarification, particularly on ways of ensuring weapons remained secure

Speaking outside a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Assembly Group at Stormont he said he felt the statement was very interesting and contained "some quite positive elements".

The UUP's position on the statement would, however, take several days to be clarified while members "teased out" the meaning of the IRA's words.

IRA makes 'painful step'

The republican group said that within weeks it would make a "confidence-building measure to confirm that its weapons remain secure," in the context of the Good Friday Agreement being fully implemented.

David Trimble: UUP's position under review

However, it has not promised to destroy weapons as unionists have demanded, and has only said that their arms dumps can be inspected by agreed third parties who will report to the decommissioning body.

The former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and former ANC secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa have been named to lead those inspections.

But Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said the IRA had made an emotional and painful step.

Mr Adams said: "I know there have been some who have been sceptical about whether republicans, the IRA in particular, were really interested in this process. I think today's statement shows that they are."

He added: "The IRA is not just stretching itself. It is actually overstretching itself to try to bring about the restoration of the peace process."

Mixed reaction

However hardline Ulster Unionist Jeffrey Donaldson said the latest IRA statement should not change party policy.

The MP for Lagan Valley said: "We should not go back into government when not one single bullet has been handed in."

But SDLP leader John Hume, who was instrumental in getting the peace process under way by holding talks with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, said the statement was "very positive".

Mr Hume said: "I think it is making very clear that the gun has been taken out of Irish politics for ever."

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he believed the IRA's statement gave the clarity needed to progress.

He said: "I think it has all the clarity that people have looked for this past 12 months. Of course there are lots of other issues in the peace process, which we have to continue to build on and build confidence on."

But the deputy leader of the anti-agreement Democratic Unionist Party Peter Robinson said that to legally satisfy the requirement for decommissioning, the IRA's guns must actually be destroyed.