The IRA's killing of civilians is wrong, Gerry Adams has said.

Answering readers' questions in the Independent, the president of Sinn Fein argued that most civilian deaths were accidents and that the IRA was one of the few guerrilla organisations to give warnings.

Adams rejected comparisons between the IRA and al Qaeda and voiced his opposition to the US invasion of Iraq saying the Bush administration should stay within international law.

"Otherwise how do you tell the difference between both sides?" he asked.

He also admitted he would one day like to keep geese and chickens, he would have dinner with David Trimble taking opera CDs as gifts, and that he could go back to being a barman "if anything goes wrong".