Rival Northern Ireland parties cast aside a Friday deadline set by the British and Irish prime ministers, continuing negotiations yesterday in a bid to avoid the collapse of their power-sharing government.
A breakdown in talks between the predominantly Roman Catholic Sinn Fein party and the mainly Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) would almost certainly trigger a snap election in the British province.
The issue of transferring police and justice powers from London to Belfast has raised old fault lines between the province’s Protestant majority and Catholic minority that once sparked nearly three decades of violence which cost 3,600 lives.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen flew in earlier this week to try and broker a deal. They left on Wednesday, saying both sides had until Friday to find a solution or Britain and Ireland would publish theirs.
“I think there has been progress over the last number of days, but there are still matters which need to be resolved, which we need to be certain about,” DUP leader Peter Robinson told reporters.
“We are not interested in deadlines, not interested in threats from anyone. If the deal is not right, it won’t be done. If the deal is right, it will be done,” Robinson said.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said the DUP had been “focused” and “well-mannered” during discussions and that the quest for a deal was continuing.
“We don’t have an agreement, but it’s not over until it’s over. We are at a fairly sensitive and defining point in all this and hopefully we will get the business done,” he said.
A deal on devolving police and justice powers would give Northern Ireland its first justice minister and be one of the boldest steps since the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that ended the three decades of violence.
Sinn Fein, which eventually wants to see the province united with Ireland, has pressed for an early date for the transfer of the powers most associated with British control during the years of violence.
It has accused the DUP, which wants Northern Ireland to remain part of Britain, of stalling. The DUP denies the charge.
In addition to the involvement of Britain and Ireland, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has phoned various parties.
The mood at the Hillsborough Castle, outside Belfast, where the talks are taking place has swung from optimism to pessimism and back again throughout the week.
On Friday, US economic envoy to Northern Ireland Declan Kelly said the US administration believed the sides were “tantalizingly close” to a deal.
Brown said on Wednesday he believed it was feasible for the Northern Ireland Assembly to consider plans on devolving policing and justice powers in March and to implement them “around the beginning of May.”
Although Brown and Cowen set the Friday deadline, a British government spokesman said: “Talks are continuing between the parties and the government will review the outcome of these talks.”
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