Clinton In Northern Ireland For Talks

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen in Dublin, 11 Oct 2009 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting with Northern Ireland's political leaders in Belfast Monday.

The talks come a day after one of Northern Ireland's deadliest paramilitary groups renounced violence and said its "armed struggle is over."

The Irish National Liberation Army said in a statement Sunday that uniting Northern Ireland with Ireland can be "best achieved through exclusively peaceful political struggle." The statement did not make clear when or if the group will hand over its weapons.

The INLA, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, made world headlines in 1979 by killing British Conservative Party lawmaker Airey Neave with a car bomb on the grounds of Parliament in London. Neave was an aide to Margaret Thatcher, who became prime minister five weeks later.

The head of the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, said the INLA's decision will be welcomed if the group follows through on its pledge.

The Good Friday peace accords in 1998 brought an official end to violence between Catholic and Protestants in Northern Ireland, and the province is now governed by a power-sharing legislature representing all groups.