Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams will travel to the US for talks with government officials after a rocky period of relations between his party and the Bush administration, it emerged today.
Mr Adams had a telephone conversation with President Bush's adviser on Northern Ireland, Mr Richard Haass, last night and will travel to the US for more talks before the end of the month, he said.
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He added that Sinn Féin had nothing to fear from an American investigation into links between the IRA and Colombian marxist rebel group FARC.
The Sinn Féin move follows growing accusations about Irish republican involvement with anti-American FARC, and Mr Adams's recent trip to Cuba, both of which threatened to harm relations with the US.
Stormont Economy Minister Sir Reg Empey, said yesterday he would be raising more allegations of IRA activities in Colombia when he visited senior US politicians in February or March.
Sinn Féin had a "good reason to worry" about the findings of an investigation by the American Congress's International Relations Committee, which is probing the links between the IRA and FARC, Mr Empey claimed.
The investigation followed the arrest of three men - Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley - in Bogota last August accused of assisting FARC rebels.
But Mr Adams, asked today while on a trip to Dublin if he was concerned about the investigation, said: "No, not at all, but Reg's concern is touching."
He admitted that Sinn Féin disagreed with the US Government on the issue of Cuba.
"But so does the Irish government ... so do the majority of the member states in the UN," he said.
PA