N. Irish breakthrough near - Gerry Adams

A deal on power-sharing in Northern Ireland is within reach, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said after talks with the British government yesterday.

London and Dublin have given Northern Ireland's parties until March 26 to agree to share power in a local executive or face the indefinite continuation of direct British rule.

After meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had earlier spoken to leading Protestant politician Ian Paisley, Mr Adams said agreement by the deadline was possible and there was a sense that a new political era was approaching.

Mr Paisley's pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) strengthened its hold in an election last week for a provincial assembly and is under pressure to share power with Sinn Fein.

"There's a sense here this could be the real breakthrough, after all the conflict, after all the false dawns - and they had just met with Ian Paisley as well - that there's a possibility of moving forwards," Mr Adams told reporters.

The prospect of a continuation of direct rule is unpalatable to Sinn Fein, the political ally of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which ultimately wants a united Ireland.

"I think everyone is working on the broad presumption that there was an election to an assembly with an executive and... that come March 26 we will all be there doing the job we were mandated to do," Mr Adams told reporters.

"They know, they can smell it," he added of Mr Blair and his Finance Minister and presumed successor Gordon Brown who also met Mr Adams on yesterday.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern also voiced optimisim that a deal was close at hand.

"The talking is finished," he told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "I think there are some minor issues that have to be arranged, but I think we will settle the executive on the 26th."

The election was widely regarded as a test of support for power-sharing. A 1998 peace deal largely ended three decades of violence in which 3,600 people were killed but a lasting political settlement has proved elusive.

While both the DUP and Sinn Fein favour reviving local government in theory, they still do not talk to each other.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain told Parliament the British government would provide "a good financial package" for a Belfast-based executive to run.