N Ireland's parties seal power-sharing deal

BELFAST: Northern Ireland's arch-rival Catholic and Protestant leaders clinched a historic 11th-hour deal on Monday to restore self-rule for the province, after unprecedented face-to-face talks.   

Britain hailed the deal as opening a "new era" for the long-troubled province, even though it delays the resumption of self-rule by six weeks until May 8.   

More than 3,000 people were killed in three decades of troubles in Northern Ireland until a peace accord was struck in 1998.   

Ian Paisley, firebrand leader of the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party, and Gerry Adams, head of mainly Catholic Sinn Fein, struck the deal hours before a midnight deadline set by Britain to agree or see permanent direct rule imposed from London.   

Paisley and Adams were figureheads of Northern Ireland's sectarian divide and bitter arch rivals throughout the troubles. Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose role in negotiating the province's future is likely to form the cornerstone of his legacy after he leaves office this year, led praise for the deal.   

"Everything we have done over the last 10 years has been a preparation for this moment," said Blair, who has been battling to strike an accord throughout his ten years in office.   

According to separate statements read out by Paisley and Adams -- who sat inches apart but did not shake hands for the cameras -- the parties will restore self-rule to Belfast on May 8, as proposed by the DUP.   

Paisley wanted to delay the initial deadline because of DUP concerns over Sinn Fein's support for police in Northern Ireland.   

The firebrand preacher said that the province's current leaders owed it to those who had died in "the Troubles" to build a better future.   

"We must never forget those who have suffered during the dark period from which we are, please God, emerging," he said.   

In a speech punctuated with Gaelic, Adams added that the agreement "marks the beginning of a new era of politics on this island".   

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said it would allow the leaders to "move forward from today in an entirely new spirit". The British government had insisted that its original March 26 deadline was "set in stone" but the unprecedented meeting between the rival leaders prompted the suggestions of greater flexibility.   

The DUP has until now refused to share power until Sinn Fein -- the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) -- accepts the rule of British law, supports the police force and the IRA renounces violence.   

Paisley is now likely to become the province's first minister, with Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness his probable deputy.   

The Northern Ireland Assembly was created by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that largely brought an end to the sectarian violence. It has been suspended since October 2002 when allegations surfaced of a republican spy-ring operating at the assembly buildings, and Northern Ireland has been governed directly from London ever since.   

Blair and Ahern revived prospects for power-sharing in the troubled province with the so-called Saint Andrews Agreement in November last year, named for the Scottish city where the negotiations took place.   

A smiling British Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said Monday's accord was even better than he could have expected. "Today the clouds have lifted, and people can see the future," he said, adding: "A genuinely new era can start" and saying the deal was "a great deal better than what I expected," and better than restoring power on Monday.   

"If we had restored today it would have been rather grudging and difficult, and the executive would have stuttered into life," he said, adding the delay would allow the administration be "really bedded down" when it assumes power.