The North's First Minister Mr David Trimble has told the British Prime Minister Mr Blair that Sinn Féin should be expelled from the North's power-sharing institutions.
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DUP leader Dr Ian Paisley
leaves Stormont today. Photo: Reuters |
Speaking after a meeting in Downing Street today, Mr Trimble said he asked Mr Blair to table a motion excluding Sinn Féin from the institutions.
Mr Trimble said if an expulsion motion was not tabled within seven days his party would resign from the Executive.
Exclusion of Sinn Féin would allow the Stormont administration and power-sharing Executive to survive, said Mr Trimble.
He added: "The Prime Minister accepts we are at a defining moment, that the time when the republicans could ride the two horses is at an end and he has himself been pointing this out."
Following the meeting Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid said that the British government would not decide what steps to take until it had consulted with the other main Northern Ireland parties and the Irish Government.
He acknowledged however that it was difficult to see how they could keep the power-sharing administration going.
Reacting to the news in Stormont, the North's Education Minister and Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness said Mr Trimble was involved in an act of "political cowardice".
Mr McGuinness said it was up to the British government to defend the institutions set up under the Belfast Agreement.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Dr Ian Paisley described Mr Trimble's announcement as "another fudge by Mr Trimble".
"He wants the British government to take the initiative. I don't believe the British government will do this".
Speaking in Stormont - the scene of police raids on Sinn Fein offices on Friday - Dr Paisley accused the Blair administration of "cuddling up to Sinn Fein/IRA".
Power-sharing in the North headed further towards collapse earlier as Dr Paisley's two Stormont ministers resigned.
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Mr Peter Robinson and Mr Nigel Dodds confirmed they had handed in letters of resignation to the Speaker of the Assembly. They will leave their desks on Friday.
The Assembly later begun a debate following the police raids on Sinn Féin's Stormont offices and homes in north and west Belfast on Friday. The debate took place after a motion by the DUP.
Mr Paisley said this morning: "Today our ministers resigned to bring about an end to this farce of a process and to force the Government to commence elections as soon as possible".
Mr Trimble resisted pressure from the DUP to join them in a Unionist walkout by placing the ball in Mr Blair's court at the Downing street meeting.
The SDLP leader and Deputy First Minister Mr Mark Durkan, meanwhile, is in Dublin for crisis talks with the Taoiseach Mr Ahern. A delegation from the party will also meet with Mr Blair in Downing Street tomorrow.