'SPY' IS KICKED OUT BY ADAMS; Britain accused of plot.

Byline: By Dan McGinn 

A SINN Fein chief was accused of being a British spy last night and thrown out of the party. Party leader Gerry Adams said Denis Donaldson, 55, was at the centre of a security services plot to discredit republicans by fabricating a Sinn Fein spy ring at Stormont, He accused Special Branch of concocting the plot to bring down the powersharing government in Ulster.

The government collapsed in 2002 when the Sinn Fein spy ring claims first surfaced.

Donaldson - a former Sinn Fein head of administration- his son-in-law and a civil servant were arrested over the allegations.

Eight days ago, prosecutors announced it was "not in the public interest" to go ahead with a court case against the three men.

Last night, Adams said: "The collapse of the power-sharing government was blamed on allegations of a Sinn Fein spy ring at Stormont.

"The fact is the collapse was a direct result of the actions of some of those who run the intelligence and policing system of the British.

"The fact is the key person at the centre of those events was a Sinn Fein member who was a British agent."

Police in Northern Ireland said last night it was not their policy to confirm or deny the identity of informants.

Adams said Sinn Fein had alerted the British and Irish Governments to the "negative role" in the peace process being played out by elements within the British system.

He added: "If Britain's war is over, then the British PM needs to come to terms with the fact that he has to end the activities of the securocrats."

Democratic Unionist Jeffrey Donaldson said: "This confirms our view the reason the court decided not to prosecute was because to do so would have compromised an agent of the state."

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said: "This actually debunks the claim by Sinn Fein there was no spy ring, when in fact there was

CAPTION(S):

ALERTED: Gerry Adams