BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, both angry after Protestant politicians retreated from an apparent deal, met Friday to discuss the problems engulfing Northern Ireland's peace accord.
Protestant leader David Trimble, meanwhile, flew to Washington the day after his Ulster Unionist Party said its divided members might take weeks to support the next steps in making April's peace accord a reality.Also Friday, clashes between police and hard-line Protestants rocked the bitterly divided town of Portadown overnight, injuring 14 people.
In dispute is the number of departments to be created in Northern Ireland's new multi-party administration and what kind of joint policy-making committees that new government should form with Ahern's government in the Irish Republic.
The British and Irish governments had expected both planks of the accord to have been formed by October. And the north's Catholic politicians thought they had reached agreement with the Ulster Unionists on both points Thursday -- to create 10 administration posts and seven cross-border committees -- when British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a special trip to Belfast.