PHILADELPHIA Irish Republican leader Gerry Adams, reacting to Friday's award of the Nobel peace prize to two rival Northern Ireland politicians, said the biggest prize was the peace process itself. I am not disappointed, I'm pleased for John Hume, and I hope David Trimble will accept the responsibilities which go along with these recognitions, Adams told a news conference on Friday morning in New York, a stop on his week-long tour of the northeastern United States for Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army. Adams was tipped as a possible candidate to share the Nobel peace prize, given to Hume, 61, head of the main Roman Catholic Nationalist Party in Northern Ireland, and Trimble, 54, leader of the biggest Protestant Party that wants the province to remain under British rule.

The big prize is the peace settlement, and that's the prize for all of us to keep our eyes on, said the Sinn Fein president. Adams, along with Republican chief strategist Martin McGuinness, is credited with persuading the IRA to call a truce that has held for 16 months. But disagreements over guerrilla arms stockpiles remain to be resolved, with pro-British Unionists wanting Republican guerrillas to disarm before Sinn Fein is allowed into Northern Ireland's planned new government.

(Reuter)