LONDON - US officials have banned the Sinn Fein party from fundraising during their Saint Patrick's Day visit to the United States as Washington presses it to cut alleged links with crime in Northern Ireland, The Times reported Monday.
Sinn Fein, the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA), was warned by State Department officials that any attempt to raise money among Irish-American supporters would be "unacceptable", the newspaper quoted diplomatic sources as saying.
Sinn Fein has been battered by a string of high-profile crimes blamed on the IRA, including a massive bank heist before Christmas and the murder of a Catholic father-of-two in Belfast in January.
The family of slain man Robert McCartney has blamed IRA members for the killing and waged a public campaign to have them tried in court. The IRA has offered to "shoot" the guilty men, but a lack of witnesses has blocked any official investigation into the crime.
Britain outlawed fundraising abroad in 2000 for all parties except those in Northern Ireland. The parties, including Sinn Fein, were also allowed to keep their donations anonymous, because of the threat of intimidation to donors.
Security sources quoted by The Times said Sinn Fein had raised between 15 million and 20 million pounds (29 million dollars/22 million euros, 38 million dollars/29 million euros) in the United States since US president Bill Clinton lifted a ban on such fundraising in 1995.
Sinn Fein, like all other parties in the Irish republic, is outlawed from accepting funds from supporters abroad.
Amid the outrage over the IRA, party leader Gerry Adams now faces a freeze-out during his trip to the United States.
US President George W. Bush has refused to meet him and the Catholic party has been cut out of official Saint Patrick's Day events in Washington.
Bush, however, will meet on Thursday with the McCartney sisters.
US Senator Ted Kennedy, the powerful Irish-American politician from Massachusetts, has also called off a meeting with Adams.
According to press reports, Kennedy's spokeswoman said the meeting, held every Saint Patrick's Day since the Good Friday peace deal in 1998, would not take place due to ongoing IRA criminal activity.
Other reports detailed that Sinn Fein's strongest supporter in the Senate, Republican Peter King, had called on the IRA to disband.

03/14/2005 11:04 GMT