Irish peace plan put on hold as hardliners gain in election

Britain's chief minister in the province, Paul Murphy, was to launch a series of meetings with local politicians following a poll which sharpened divisions between unionists from the Protestant majority, who favor continued British rule, and Catholics who want to join the south in a united Ireland.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led by Protestant cleric Ian Paisley, a diehard opponent of the province's five-year-old peace accord, emerged as the largest in the mothballed legislature when vote-counting was completed on Friday.

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The Irish Republican Army's (IRA's) political ally Sinn Fein -- whose leaders Paisley brands "murderers and reprobates" and refuses to speak to -- was the big winner among Catholic voters.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly, the centerpiece of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, has been suspended since October last year when a shaky Protestant/Catholic coalition broke down over allegations of IRA spying.

London and Dublin had hoped Wednesday's twice-delayed election would provide impetus for rival politicians to reach a deal on restoring the assembly and so safeguard the 1998 deal, which aimed to end three decades of sectarian violence.