Britain has suspended the power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland, just ten weeks after bringing it into being.

The British minister for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson, said it was better to reimpose direct rule from London than risk the peace process collapsing altogether.

His announcement came a day before the main Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, was threatening to leave the executive because of lack of progress on IRA disarmament.

The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, said there had been no significant moves to resolve the crisis.

The dramatic developments came despite a last-minute announcement by the political wing of the IRA, Sinn Fein, that the IRA was setting out what it called a new context for disarmament. The Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, appealed for more consideration to be given to what he called this major breakthrough.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service