By Andras Gergely
DUBLIN (Reuters) - A tribunal probing payments to IrishPrime Minister Bertie Ahern when he was finance minister in the1990s ground to a halt on Friday after a row erupted betweenits top judge and Ahern's lawyer.
Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon adjourned for a 10minute cooling off period after angrily denying suggestions byAhern's legal team that lawyers acting for the inquiry caninfluence decisions by its panel of three judges.
"One side of the argument has access to you and the otherdoesn't," Ahern's lawyer Conor Maguire told the judges.
"That cannot in any sense of the word be fair andreasonable or be fair and equal treatment."
A visibly agitated Mahon described it as the most seriousclaim ever made against the decade-long investigation intorelationships between politicians and property developers whomade vast profits on planning decisions in the 1990s.
"You are saying that we are crooks ... that we areconducting a witch hunt," Mahon said. "What I absolutelydeplore is this constant theme that we have from you that insome way we are on some sort of a twisted, illegal, corruptfrolic."
Ahern has previously attacked the tribunal for delving intoevery area of his finances after failing to prove initialallegations that he accepted money in return for favours.
He has admitted receiving tens of thousands of pounds fromfriends, businessmen and family in the early 1990s but hasdenied any wrongdoing, describing his finances as complex butnot improper following the breakdown of his marriage.
Ahern clinched a third successive term -- which he sayswill be his last -- in June after an election campaigndominated by revelations about his finances, but his pollratings have suffered since he first took the witness stand inSeptember.
Later this year, Ahern is due to lead calls for Irishvoters to back the European Union reform treaty in areferendum. A "No" vote by one of the bloc's smallest memberswould wreck the treaty, which replaces a constitution rejectedby French and Dutch voters in 2005.
(Writing by Paul Hoskins; Editing by Catherine Evans)
