IRA in weapons talks offer

The IRA's talks offer was rejected as inadequate by the Ulster Unionists

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Northern Ireland's troubled peace process has seen a fresh development as the Irish Republican Army offered to renew negotiations with disarmament officials.

The paramilitaries said in a statement they would resume talks with retired Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain, leader of a four-year-old disarmament commission, after breaking off contacts last month.

The IRA offered to "intensify the engagement" with de Chastelain "with a view to accelerating progress towards the comprehensive resolution of this issue."

But the offer was described as inadequate by leaders of Northern Ireland's major Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, who quit as Northern Ireland's first minister in July in protest at the IRA's failure to disarm, has said he will not run for re-election unless the IRA starts handing over weapons.

A vote for a new first minister must start by Saturday. Otherwise the government will suspend the power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly, with direct rule of the area from London resuming.

In August, the body was suspended for 24 hours in order to allow another six weeks of negotiations aimed at finding a solution to the crisis. The six-week breathing space ends on Saturday.

Under the laws which created the assembly as part of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, it must be suspended if it goes six weeks without a leader.

The IRA on Wednesday also made its first comment on the arrests last month of three suspected IRA members in Colombia.

Cuba has identified one of the men as Sinn Fein's Havana-based representative for Latin America.

"We wish to make it clear that the Army Council sent no one to Colombia to train or to engage in any military cooperation with any group," said the IRA in a statement carried in the Irish press.

"The IRA has not interfered in the internal affairs of Colombia and will not so do. The IRA is not a threat to the peace process in Ireland or in Colombia."

Colombian authorities are holding the three men without bail while prosecutors prepare their case.