Blair warns armed groups to observe stricter cease-fires

LONDON -- Northern Ireland's rival outlawed groups cannot continue to violate their cease-fires and will face more rigorous scrutiny by Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair declared Wednesday in a bid to bolster the province's Catholic-Protestant government.\nBlair, addressing lawmakers in the final summer session of Parliament, did not, however, meet Protestant demands for the speedy expulsion of Sinn Fein politicians from Northern Ireland's government in response to alleged Irish Republican Army breaches of its 5-year-old truce. Sinn Fein is the political wing of the IRA.\n"It is not enough for people to be on cease-fire and think there is some tolerated level of violence," Blair said.\nHe said all of Northern Ireland's major paramilitary groups -- the IRA in militant Catholic areas, the Ulster Defense Association and Ulster Volunteer Force in Protestant ones -- were guilty of committing violent acts in recent months.