The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, needs to stand up to the "No men" and accept his responsibilities to make the Belfast Agreement work, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said yesterday, writes Nuala Haughey.
Mr Adams, who is meeting Mr Trimble and Senator George Mitchell today as part of the review of the implementation of the agreement, said a political leader who refused to make the agreement work, given the votes for it North and South, was "finished".
Speaking at a presentation ceremony for former drug addicts in Dublin yesterday, Mr Adams said Mr Trimble needed to stand up to the "No men" and act as an advocate for the agreement.
He said: "We have to go in and advocate. There is no one within the broad unionist strata who has gone public and advocated this agreement, who is standing up to the `No men'.
"So I think that's what Mr Trimble needs to do . . . You have to face down bigots and the unreconstructed elements in there. The people who don't want progress, who are against change, have to be faced down."