US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned the violent opponents of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

She praised Northern Ireland's coalition government leaders, who are visiting the United States, for unity in condemning recent violence.

Speaking at a news conference in Washington on Monday with Irish Foreign Minister, Micheal Martin, Clinton said the recent attacks which killed two British soldiers and a police officer are an affront to the values of every community, ethnicity, religion and nation that seeks peace.

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, said, "The success of the peace process has consequences that go far beyond Northern Ireland. It provides proof to people everywhere that negotiations, dialogue, reconciliation, diplomacy can end conflicts that have tormented generations. The United States stand with the people of Northern Ireland."

Earlier, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams spoke to reporters at the National Press Club in Washington DC, ahead of Saint Patrick's Day celebrations and meetings with US government officials on Tuesday.

Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein leader, said, "Political institutions, the peace process, and Sinn Fein itself, is as much a target of the perpetrators as those who they killed or injured. So they have to be resisted, but this has to be done politically, democratically, and peacefully. They want to destroy the gains that have been made for the people and by the people and they cannot be allowed to succeed."

Adams said those behind the renewed violence in Northern Ireland are trying to undermine his party for its support of the peace process.

On Monday, police in Northern Ireland arrested two suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents. The arrests are in addition to another nine made last week, as part of an investigation into this month's killings of British soldiers and police.

It appears that dissidents are trying to undermine the current US visit by Northern Irish leaders, which also includes Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson, the Protestant leader of the power-sharing government.

(CCTV March 17, 2009)