Devolved NI government suspended

Northern Ireland Secretary, John Reid

There's now another six weeks to reach agreement in northern Ireland on the decommissioning of IRA weapons. That's the upshot of the announcement from the Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid.

He's suspended the Stormont Assembly from midnight tonight for what will probably be forty-eight hours. Under the legislation that set up the devolve d institutions, that buys six weeks' breathing space.

In a statement released by Downing Street, the Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "We are at a very important stage of the Northern Ireland peace process. I believe that all sides have made significant steps and I hope that we can make more progress once the review has been completed. When we have come so far I think most people would agree with both governments that we should allow the parties more time to bridge the remaining gaps"

So from Midnight tonight Northern Ireland is once again under direct rule from London.

The British and Irish governments have another six weeks to get all parties to agree to their proposals to restart the peace process. The trigger for this crisis was, of course, David Trimble's resignation as first minister six weeks ago in protest over the lack of progress on the arms issue.

After a week of IRA statement and Unionist rejection, of behind-the-scenes talks and public declaration, Mister Trimble has gone on holiday. He needed to put himself up for re-election tomorrow to avert some action from London.

So the temporary suspension is not a big surprise. The main parties have spent today talking about just this probability. The senior Ulster Unionist, Sir Reg Empey, reflected David Trimbles stance, that disarmament still had to take place in order to take the process forward.

For Sinn Fein, Chief negotiator Martin McGuinness has said it was the Ulster Unionists who were to blame for holding up the process.

Our Correspondent Tom Coulter tells us why.