Gerry Adams

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has been barred from US talks with Democrat senator Edward Kennedy.

The news comes as a major blow to the Irish republican movement ahead of St Patrick's Day this week.

Adams is in the US in a bid to shore up Sinn Fein support in the wake of the murder of party supporter Robert McCartney and December's Belfast Northern Bank robbery.

Normally one of America's biggest Irish republican sympathisers, Kennedy slammed the IRA's "ongoing criminal activity and contempt for the rule of law".

A spokesman for Adams said the senator had been "badly advised".

"We are disappointed at this decision. Senator Kennedy has played a positive role in the process," he said.

"Sinn Fein has worked closely with him in the past. On this occasion we believe that he has been badly advised.

"For our part we will continue to tackle the issues which need to be resolved if the peace process is to succeed and we are confident that we will work with Senator Kennedy again in the future."

White House

Meanwhile reports on Sunday suggested Adams has been given the same status in the White House as the late Yasser Arafat.

President Bush is also understood to have frozen out the Sinn Fein president because of his party's continuing links to IRA criminality.

"At the White House, Adams is now regarded as with the same sort of disdain as Arafat," a presidential aide told the Sunday Telegraph.

"The president no longer considers Mr Adams a reliable partner for peace. He doesn't want to meet him."

US presidents have played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process in recent years, with Bush personally calling Adams last year at a delicate stage in negotiations.

But the White House was said to be annoyed that at the same time as the conversation the IRA was planning the bank raid.