N. Irish violence could return: Adams

Addressing Sinn Fein's annual party conference, Adams called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to order Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson to restore the institutions he suspended. “There is the possibility that all of the good work of recent years could be frittered away. Worse still there could be a slide back to conflict,” Adams told delegates gathered in Dublin for the two-day conference. “If the decline of the Good Friday Agreement is to be reversed before it becomes terminal, then Mr Blair must steer his government and the process out of the current wobble. He must order the reinstatement of the institutions,” Adams said to loud applause. Northern Ireland's peace process stalled in February when Mandelson suspended the province's government after the Irish Republic Army refused to hand over its arms, and restored rule from London. Adams, whose party is considered the IRA's political wing, said the suspension was illegal and called the move the biggest single mistake by the British Labour Party since it took power in May 1997. The IRA, which is maintaining a ceasefire in its war against British rule, pulled out of talks with the province's independent arms decommissioning body, leaving the peace process deadlocked.