Belfast deal

Northern Ireland's two main parties on Thursday evening reached an agreement on the devolvement of policing and judiciary powers to the province from London.

Ten days of exhausting talks between the predominantly Catholic Sinn Fein and Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) culminated in a breakthrough deal that saves the power-sharing government from collapse.

Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his British counterpart Gordon Brown arrived at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast early on Friday to endorse the deal. Until Thursday it had been in doubt, with the Dublin newspaper "The Irish Times" warning that the North was "on the cusp of a moment of development or betrayal."

Closing last chapter

Brown confirmed that a deal was imminent, saying "we are closing the last chapter of a long and troubled story. We are opening a new chapter for Northern Ireland." He added that the British government had set aside an extra 920 million euros ($1.26 billion) to fund the transfer, officially due on April 12.

Cowen, who joined Brown at an initial press conference, described the accord as "an essential step for peace, stability and security in Northern Ireland."

Overnight, the province's First Minister Peter Robinson had said the 35 members of his Democratic Unionist Party had unanimously approved the latest version of the still-confidential deal.

"We have a basis upon which we can go forward and recommend it," Robinson said, a day after he had resumed office after being cleared over a sex and funding scandal.

Last weekend, 14 DUP members had voted "no" in an apparent rejection of Robinson's leadership.

Sinn Fein had declared its support earlier. Its leader Gerry Adams welcomed the DUP declaration, saying the deal would create a "basis for fairness."

DUP representatives had previously been cautious about handing law and order powers to a government that includes Sinn Fein.

Talks prompted by Cowen and Brown

The breakthrough follows personal interventions launched last month by Brown and Cowen to prevent the collapse of power-sharing stemming from the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

Failure to clinch a deal, seen as the last main step in Northern Ireland's devolution process, would have probably triggered a snap election. Analysts had also warned that any fresh political vacuum could have led to a renewal of violence.

Last part of the jigsaw

The British government's Northern Ireland minister, Shaun Woodward, said the agreement would be "the last part of a jigsaw that enshrines the peace agreement itself."

During violence which largely ended in 1998 more than 3,500 people were killed in Northern Ireland in a period known as the "Troubles." Communities supporting and opposed to British rule were pitted against one another in a series of bombings and shootings.

ipj/Reuters/AP/dpa/AFP
Editor: Rob Turner