Bush rings Sinn Fein to back N Ireland deal

LONDON - United States President George W Bush rang Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams on Sunday to try to help clinch a peace deal in Northern Ireland.

The White House said Bush spoke to Adams, whose party is the political ally of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), from Air Force One as he travelled back to Washington after spending the Thanksgiving holiday on his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

"The president expressed his support for the peace process and the agreement proposed by (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair and (Irish Prime Minister Bertie) Ahern," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"The president called on Mr Adams to help provide the leadership to move this process forward," he said.

Adams said he briefed the president on his party's demands in the latest peace talks.

"Irish America, the Bush administration and the previous (US President Bill) Clinton administration have been very helpful throughout the peace process," Adams said in a statement.

Bush contacted Protestant leader Ian Paisley on Friday in an attempt to break a deadlock in the British-ruled province.

Britain and Ireland are trying to push Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) into agreeing to share power over the province with Sinn Fein -- a previously unthinkable alliance.

Protestant unionists, who support British rule, and Catholic republicans, who want a united Ireland, are studying an Anglo-Irish peace plan to revive home rule.

London and Dublin say time is running out for an agreement and officials from all sides will meet again this week.

Adams said on Sunday he believed his Protestant rivals were ready to agree to a peace deal.

"I think he (Paisley) will do a deal," Adams told BBC Television from Belfast. "He wants to do a deal on his terms. He has to do a deal on terms that are acceptable to the rest of us," he said.

Paisley said on Friday his party needed to be assured that the IRA had put down its weapons for good.

The DUP plans to meet retired Canadian General John de Chastelain, head of an international body overseeing guerrilla disarmament, on Monday, while Paisley will meet Blair on Tuesday.

Last week Paisley raised a long list of questions about the Anglo-Irish peace plan. London has tried to answer them and Paisley will give his response on Tuesday.

Adams called again for Britain and the Irish republic to restore home rule even if the DUP rejects the deal.

"If the DUP do not come aboard ... then the governments have to press ahead," he said.

Power sharing was set up under the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, which tried to end a three-decade political and sectarian conflict which cost more than 3600 lives.

Bush has not carried on Clinton's enthusiastic engagement in Northern Ireland, but the US has played a low-key role in efforts to keep the process on track.

Bush said on Friday he intervened to try to get Paisley's and Adams' parties to the table to get an agreement.

Violence has largely stopped in Northern Ireland but political stability has been elusive, with the vexed issue of the IRA and its guns dogging efforts to sustain power sharing.

Britain suspended home rule in October 2002 after allegations of IRA spying caused a final breakdown of trust.

- REUTERS