Spy's murder complicates N. Ireland peace efforts

The murder of an Irish nationalist who spied for Britain has complicated Northern Ireland peace efforts ahead of new talks on a power-sharing agreement, British and Irish leaders said yesterday.

Police launched a murder inquiry on Tuesday after finding the body of former Sinn Fein member Denis Donaldson who last year admitted spying on fellow Irish nationalists on behalf of British security forces.

Politicians said the timing of the murder suggested it was about more than just settling old scores and may have also been intended to disrupt the peace process.

The killing has aggravated the political stalemate in Northern Ireland before a meeting today at which London and Dublin will make a new bid to restore a power-sharing government in the divided province.

"The timing does suggest that whoever did this wants to derail the peace process," British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Sky Television on the eve of the meeting in Northern Ireland with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.

"If there are people who are trying to wreck the political process by these appalling and barbaric acts of violence, the single best message is to say 'No, you're not going to succeed'."

Addressing the Irish Parliament less than 24 hours after Mr Donaldson's body was found at a remote hideout in rugged northwestern Ireland, Mr Ahern said the murder complicated matters.

"Does it make any difference to the events of tomorrow? It certainly makes it more difficult," Mr Ahern said.

Ceasefires by paramilitaries in the run-up to the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement largely ended three decades of violence in the British-ruled province in which over 3,600 people died.

But a regional government set up under the accord, in which pro-British Protestant Unionists shared power with Catholic Nationalists, collapsed three years ago and deep mutual mistrust remains the main hurdle to restoring the mothballed assembly.

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern are expected to propose a step-by-step approach today but the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), representing much of Northern Ireland's Protestant majority, fears local politicians will get too much power too quickly.

Sinn Fein, which wants to sever links with Britain, is calling for the full restoration of political institutions in Northern Ireland and a speedy end to direct rule from London.

One thing both sides can agree on is that Mr Donaldson's murder complicates the process, albeit for different reasons.

DUP leader Ian Paisley, who refuses to sit down with Sinn Fein citing what he says are continued crime links, said on Tuesday it would have "very serious repercussions" and showed the Irish Republican Army had not renounced violence.

Mr Donaldson, a convicted IRA bomber, was expelled from Sinn Fein - the guerilla group's political ally - in December after he admitted spying for Britain for more than 20 years.

But the IRA, which has traditionally dealt harshly with informers and is slow to forget betrayal, has denied any involvement in his killing. The group pledged last July to down arms and pursue a united Ireland through democratic means.