New NIreland pact elusive, dashing premiers' hopes

(AP) — Northern Ireland's major Protestant party unexpectedly withheld support Monday for a painstakingly negotiated deal with its Catholic partners to save their 2½-year-old administration.

The surprise setback upset plans by the British and Irish prime ministers, Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen, to travel to Northern Ireland to unveil what would have been a breakthrough in their efforts to sustain power-sharing, the central goal of the territory's 1998 peace accord.

All sides said a successful conclusion remained possible Tuesday.

Both premiers had expected the Democratic Unionists, who represent the British Protestant majority, to accept a compromise plan crafted over the past week of day-and-night negotiations. Cowen canceled an official trip to Spain, while Brown's foreign minister erroneously told lawmakers in London that the British leader was already in Northern Ireland.

But a meeting of Democratic Unionist lawmakers called to confirm the deal dragged on in secrecy until the evening. It ended with a tired-eyed party leader, Peter Robinson, declaring that another long night of talks with British officials and Sinn Fein lay ahead.

Robinson said his party's lawmakers had pored over the proposed settlement and identified "issues that have to be resolved, and items about which they need to be satisfied." He declined to specify what they were.

The Democratic Unionist chief pledged to spend Monday night negotiating "with all due diligence and expedition." Last week's negotiations typically ran past 3 a.m. each night.

The Irish Catholic party Sinn Fein — which triggered the crisis by threatening to withdraw from the coalition, forcing its collapse and new Northern Ireland elections — said it broadly supported the plans as they stood and remained hopeful of sealing a deal Tuesday.

Sinn Fein likewise declined to specify the points in dispute.

"We are confident we can make the deal," said Gerry Kelly, a convicted Irish Republican Army car bomber who today is Sinn Fein's justice spokesman. "Until we do conclude that agreement, then there's no point talking about the detail of that agreement."

The impasse centers on a long-delayed plan to transfer government responsibility for Northern Ireland's police and justice system from Britain to local hands.

The Democratic Unionists have repeatedly blocked the move. They most recently have made it conditional on winning concessions on the right of Protestant groups to resume marching near hostile Catholic districts — even though the last time this was permitted in the mid-1990s, widespread rioting was the result.

Britain, Ireland and the U.S. all support Sinn Fein's demand to transfer control of law enforcement, criminal justice standards and the courts system from London to Belfast. They say this would demonstrate the community's newfound unity following decades of division and violence that left 3,700 dead.

The past week of diplomacy has illustrated instead how much still divides Northern Ireland. The Democratic Unionists want the abolition of a British-appointed Parades Commission that has severely restricted Protestant parades over the past decade. Sinn Fein rejects this demand as a recipe for disaster.

Under terms of the proposed deal, Britain would transfer justice responsibilities from London to Belfast in early May. That meets Sinn Fein's key demand for a fixed deadline.

The new Justice Department in Northern Ireland would be run by a neutral third-party figure, not a Democratic Unionist or Sinn Fein official. Many Protestants are opposed to giving Sinn Fein any role in overseeing law and order, citing the party's links to the Irish Republican Army. The IRA killed nearly 1,800 people — including judges, court witnesses and 300 police officers — during its failed 1970-1997 campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom.

Power-sharing has suffered repeated breakdowns amid conflicts between Protestant leaders and Sinn Fein over the fate of the outlawed IRA.

The most recent coalition gained office in 2007 after the IRA disarmed and Sinn Fein accepted the authority of Northern Ireland's police force. Sinn Fein expected the fledgling Northern Ireland coalition to receive justice powers as part of the deal, and Britain and Ireland had specified they wanted it to happen by mid-2008.