Prince Charles shakes hands with Sinn Fein leader Adams

Prince Charles has become the first British royal to meet Irish republican leader Gerry Adams, on a visit that will take him to the scene of his great-uncle's murder by the IRA.

Charles, the heir to the British throne, shook hands with Adams, the veteran president of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the now-defunct Irish Republican Army paramilitary group.

The prince, 66, met Adams at the National University of Ireland's campus in Galway on the west coast, shortly after starting a two-day visit to the republic.

Adams leaned forward several times as they spoke for less than a minute, before introducing Charles to other guests.

Speaking before the visit, Adams referred to Charles by his title as colonel-in-chief of the British army's Parachute Regiment.

Soldiers from the regiment were found responsible for several killings during the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre - one of the worst atrocities in the Northern Ireland conflict, known as "The Troubles."

"But he (Charles) also has been bereaved by the actions of republicans," Adams said.

Adams has always rejected allegations that he was a key figure in the IRA, which killed Charles's beloved great-uncle and mentor Earl Mountbatten in 1979.

The IRA blew up a boat carrying Mountbatten off the west coast of Ireland, in one of the most high-profile assassinations during three decades of sectarian unrest that killed 3500 people.

The 79-year-old, who was the last viceroy of India and a father figure to Charles, was killed along with two relatives, and Paul Maxwell, a 14-year-old local boy who worked on the fishing boat.

Adams and other senior Sinn Fein members boycotted Queen Elizabeth II's groundbreaking visit to Ireland in 2011, the first by a British monarch since the future Republic of Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1922.