Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams tonight denounced as amateurish restrictions placed on him by the US State Department on a visa to travel to New York this week.
The West Belfast MP dropped plans to fly to New York tomorrow to take part in a fund raising dinner for his party because he claimed the US government was imposing restrictions on him in a bid to force Sinn Fein to endorse current policing structures in Northern Ireland.
However, he will fulfil a visit to Toronto on Saturday which had been planned at the end of a brief North American tour.
"I have been told that I do not have permission to fund raise in the United States," the Sinn Fein president said. "I have to say that this is a rather amateurish effort by elements within the US administration to get Sinn Fein to change our position on policing.
"Our position on policing is very clear. The British government has agreed to honour certain commitments. I am committed if and when they do that to go to the Sinn Fein ard chomhairle to deal with the issue of policing. These positions are matters of public record."
Sinn Fein is the only party among the four biggest parties in Northern Ireland to refuse to take its seat on policing accountability structures like the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams
It has also refused to encourage its supporters to co-operate with and consider joining the Police Service of Northern Ireland because it argues reforms have not gone far enough.
The party has been pressing the British government to commit itself to the transfer of policing and justice powers to a future power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland. However the party has been criticised by the SDLP, unionists and parties in the Republic for failing to sign up to policing and recognise the changes that have taken place.
Mr Adams was due to take part in the Friends of Sinn Fein annual fundraising dinner in New York this week and had also planned meetings with US politicians in Washington before heading to Canada.
He was also due to receive an award in New York from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy headed by leading Irish-American businessman Bill Flynn.
Sinn Fein sources claimed tonight that the visa would have allowed Mr Adams to attend the prize-giving ceremony which was a fundraising event for that organisation but would have been banned from attending the Friends of Sinn Fein event.
"The visa position, as I understand it, is absurd," Mr Adams said. "It appears they expect me to go to New York and not go to any fundraising event. I am a busy man and have no wish to be just sitting around in New York.
"What they are doing is robbing me of the opportunity to convey to thousands of supporters in the United States the progress that has been made in recent times and the progress that can be made in the months ahead.
"I am personally disappointed in the position that Mitchell Reiss (President Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland) has adopted on this."