LONDON (Reuters) - Britain was reported Wednesday to be planning to press ahead with two key peace proposals for Northern Ireland in an attempt to persuade the IRA to rejoin guerrilla disarmament efforts.To dangle a carrot in front of the IRA, the British government would start implementing proposals to scale back its military presence in the province and reform the Protestant-dominated police force, the BBC said.(Read photo caption below)
``The government wants to play its part. It hopes others will do the same,'' it quoted an unidentified British official as saying.
The Irish Republican Army threw the peace process into new turmoil Tuesday when it announced it was withdrawing a disarmament proposal it made only last week.
Politicians from the Protestant majority and Roman Catholic minority have long been deadlocked over the absence of guerrilla disarmament, the future shape of policing and Britain's military presence.
Protestants have made guerrilla disarmament their main issue, while Catholics want to see progress on police reforms and a reduction in British troop levels.
Britain and Ireland voiced disappointment over the IRA's statement but promised to try to keep the peace drive on track over the coming weeks.
U.S. URGES IRA TO RECONSIDER
The United States urged the IRA to reconsider its decision and said laying down arms was an integral part of Northern Ireland's landmark 1998 Good Friday agreement.
``The United States deeply regrets the Irish Republican Army's announcement today withdrawing its proposals for weapons decommissioning,'' State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker told a regular news briefing in Washington.
An IRA statement cited among its reasons the rejection of its latest olive branch on arms by the province's Protestant politicians, and accused Britain of failing to fulfil its obligations in the peace process.
``The conditions therefore do not exist for progressing our proposition. We are withdrawing our proposal,'' said the secret guerrilla army, which has halted a 30-year anti-British war.Last week officials said the IRA had agreed on technical methods of arms disposal for the first time, but the guerrilla group gave no timetable for disarmament to begin.
As Protestant politicians and the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein traded insults about the latest impasse, the arrest of three suspected Irish militants in Colombia lengthened the shadows across the peace process.
Colombian authorities said they believed the trio had been training guerrillas in the South American state about bomb-making.
A British security source said two were thought to have had links to the mainstream IRA, often called the ``Provisional IRA.''
``This was a serious team out to have a serious exchange of ideas and technology,'' the source told Reuters.
In Dublin, Irish police chief Pat Byrne was quoted on Tuesday as saying the three men were believed to be IRA members.
Commissioner Byrne said the three were all known to police in the Irish Republic, state broadcaster RTE reported.
Protestant politicians said the episode had intensified their skepticism about the IRA's commitment to peace in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein said facts about the Colombian affair were scant.
``The issue is whether it has anything to do with the Irish peace process. I think there is no basis for coming to that conclusion,'' said Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin.
The Good Friday agreement was signed to end three decades of political and sectarian strife that has claimed over 3,600 lives. It was also designed to find common cause between Protestants who want to maintain links with Britain and Catholics who favor integration with the Irish Republic.
PHOTO CAPTION:
In response to the one-day suspension of the Northern Ireland home-rule government by John Reid, Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary (L), the IRA announced it was abandoning a disarmament plan, August 14, 2001. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams (R) has challenged Britain to end the crisis in the peace process by implementing radical policing changes and scaling down its military presence in the province. (Chris Helgren, Paul McErlane/Reuters)