BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams warned Friday that Belfast's peace accord "could bleed to death" if the stalemate over forming a new compromise government is not quickly overcome.
Moderate Catholic politicians joined the Irish Republican Army-allied party in blaming the impasse on Protestant leader David Trimble, who flew Friday to Washington denying any crisis lay ahead.Both Sinn Fein and moderate Catholics accused the Ulster Unionist Party leader of misleading British Prime Minister Tony Blair during negotiations between the north's Catholic politicians and the Ulster Unionists.
The two groups appeared to have reached an agreement on Northern Ireland's new multiparty administration, but it fell apart hours after Blair's departure Thursday.
Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern had expected local politicians to have formed Northern Ireland's new administration by now and to have agreed on terms for the way that government shapes policy with the Irish Republic.
The agreement that fell apart Thursday specified that the government would have 10 departments and that it would cooperate with the Irish government on seven committees dealing with issues like tourism, trade and cross-border waterways.
Both sides still expect to reach a deal along these lines but possibly not until January -- too late for the agreement's plan to transfer power from the British government to local politicians in February.
Seamus Mallon, Trimble's would-be Catholic colleague at the head of the as-yet-unformed cross-community government, sharply rebuked the Protestant politicians.
"People did not honor their word. That's putting it as mildly as I possibly can," Mallon said.
Trimble accused Mallon's Social Democratic and Labor Party, the moderate Catholic party, of "presenting fresh demands" after Blair had left.