The official dissolution of the assembly -- which was elected in 2003 but failed to form a cross-community administration -- will permit Protestant and Catholic parties to campaign for stronger mandates in the runup to a March 7 election.

The governments of Britain and Ireland want the new assembly to form a strong coalition a week later and receive control of most of Northern Ireland's government March 26 -- a deadline that both governments insist will not be moved.

The major Protestant party, the Democratic Unionists, refuses to cooperate with the IRA-linked Sinn Fein, which represents most Catholics, citing its refusal to accept British law and order.

That supposedly changed Jan. 28 when a special Sinn Fein conference voted overwhelmingly to open normal relations with the Police Service of Northern Ireland. However, Sinn Fein's motion made its support for the police conditional on the Democratic Unionists accepting the March 26 deadline.

Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley -- a hard-line evangelist who since the start of Northern Ireland's conflict four decades ago has opposed compromise with Catholics -- admitted that the Sinn Fein move was significant because the party appeared to be accepting the legitimacy of Northern Irish institutions.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 3, 2007
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