Britain calls on N. Irish leaders to re-build trust

Britain's chief minister in Northern Ireland called on the province's rival Protestant and Catholic politicians on Wednesday to re-build fractured trust as efforts begin to revive the stalled peace process.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy delivered his New Year message as London prepared to launch a review of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which aimed to end 30 years of political and sectarian violence that claimed 3,600 lives.

The 1998 deal was meant to usher in a new era of power-sharing between majority Protestants and minority Catholics, but endless rows over the pace of disarmament by the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA) threaten its survival.

The power-sharing assembly at the heart of the pact has not met for more than a year, since allegations of IRA spying prompted Britain to suspend it. Electoral gains for hardliners in November ended hopes of a speedy restoration.

"For all of us involved in the political process the greatest challenge will be to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland a working assembly," said Mr Murphy in the New Year statement released by his office in Belfast.

"That's what people voted for and that's what all the parties - irrespective of their difficulties - want to see."

Today is the deadline for rival parties to submit their ideas on how the workings of the agreement could be improved.

Mr Murphy is expected to formally announce a scheduled review of the deal in the coming days.

The underlying problem which has dogged the pact is that Protestant unionists, who favour continued British rule, are unwilling to share power with the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein while the guerrilla group retains some of its weapons.

For their part, Catholic nationalists, who favour a united Ireland, blame repeated unionist threats to pull out of Belfast's home rule government for the continuing instability.