Hopes of peace in Northern Ireland have been damaged by the government "deliberately and remorselessly" throwing away key negotiating positions, former Cabinet minister Lord Tebbit has told the House of Lords.

Peers were debating the emergency measures which pave the way towards direct rule being reimposed on Northern Ireland by the end of the week.

Lord Tebbit said ministers had harmed the peace process by allowing the release of terrorist prisoners, admitting Sinn Fein members into the power-sharing assembly and "dismembering" the RUC.

He said that although the crisis had come about because of the failure of paramilitaries to disarm, it was the prime minister and not the IRA who had broken promises.

He told peers: "It was not the IRA but the prime minister who made promises to the people of Northern Ireland that there would be disarmament if they voted for the Belfast agreement."

But the former leader of the nationalist SDLP, Lord Fitt, said blame for the current crisis lay with the IRA.

And he said he "would beg and plead with Sinn Fein to do something within the next 24 hours" to avoid the suspension.

'Consensus dented'

The emergency measures cleared the Commons on Tuesday and are expected to become law by Friday after further Lords debate on Thursday.

The move to follows the IRA's failure to begin decommissioning.

Cabinet Office Minister Lord Falconer said there was no further substantial progress to report.

He said: "There is no doubt cross-community consensus has been severely dented by the absence of credible progress on decommissioning, in the absence of an unequivocal commitment or a specific time frame in which it will occur.

"On every other front the Good Friday Agreement has brought a better way of life for the population as a whole than Northern Ireland ever had before ... there are no more outsiders, no more second-class citizens."

Opposition frontbench spokesman Lord Glentoran said it was a sad day for the people of Northern Ireland because after 30 years they were being governed by locally-elected representatives.

He said: "They were also leading much more normal lives, children were running about without the fear of a bomb round the corner, or a sniper killing their parents or somebody else.

"I think the people of Northern Ireland, this government, this Parliament, and the Dail and all the people in that, have been badly let down by the provisional IRA and Sinn Fein."

Liberal Democrat Lord Smith of Clifton said it was another "disappointing and sad moment for Northern Ireland and the vast majority of its people".

The Lords gave the emergency legislation an unopposed second reading, and it will complete its remaining stages on Thursday.