British, Irish premiers cancel parliament events for final push on new Northern Ireland accord

Northern Ireland talks face criticial day

HILLSBOROUGH, Northern Ireland — The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland canceled their parliament appearances Wednesday to keep pushing politicians in Northern Ireland into a new compromise to save the region’s Catholic-Protestant government.

Gordon Brown of Britain and Brian Cowen of Ireland, who arrived Monday night in a surprise move to prevent the collapse of Northern Ireland’s four-party government, have slept little since. At stake is the survival of the centerpiece of Northern Ireland’s 12-year-old peace accord.

Aides said the premiers brokered talks between the key Northern Ireland players — the British Protestants of the Democratic Unionist party, and the Irish Catholics of Sinn Fein — until 5 a.m. (0500GMT) Wednesday and planned to mount a final diplomatic push at midday.

Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists have spent years clashing over the next key step in making their uneasy partnership work: taking control of the territory’s police and justice system from Britain. The switch is backed by both Britain and Ireland.

Sinn Fein wanted the move to happen by 2008, a year after their unwieldy coalition gained control of other government departments previously run by Britain.

But the Protestant side remains divided over the prospect that former Irish Republican Army commanders in Sinn Fein — men involved in killing police officers and judges — would have any role now in overseeing law and order.

Sinn Fein has sparked the current crisis by threatening to walk out of the coalition, forcing its collapse and new elections, unless the Protestant side stops vetoing the move now.

Red-eyed negotiators from both parties said Wednesday that the prime ministers’ intervention and intensive all-night talks had narrowed the ground between the two sides, but added the prospect for an agreement later Wednesday looked dim.

“That’s probably unlikely, but it doesn’t have to be a long way away,” said Democratic Unionist negotiator Edwin Poots.

Sinn Fein wants the Protestants to accept a fixed date for Northern Ireland’s proposed Justice Department to be up and running with a local politician in charge. The Anglo-Irish plans have proposed dates in early May. This would be the third anniversary of the rise of Northern Ireland power-sharing.