World IN BRIEF : NORTHERN IRELAND : IRA Says Peace Overture Is Rejected

The leader of the IRA’s political wing said he offered to hold peace talks but that Britain rebuffed him. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said he had written to the British and Irish governments and political and church leaders to seek talks on ending the 22-year-old guerrilla fight by the Irish Republican Army to oust Britain from Northern Ireland. A British government spokesman said: “The government’s position is clear. Sinn Fein claims it wants peace, the Provisionals (the IRA) continue to engage in organized violence, which Sinn Fein supports. Therefore the government cannot engage in dialogue with Sinn Fein as if it were a normal political party.” Three-thousand people have died in Ulster violence since 1969.