McGuinness labels DUP 'Taleban'

Martin McGuinness described the DUP as the Taleban

The Democratic Unionist Party have been described as the Taleban by Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness.

Speaking ahead of the visit on Thursday by the British and Irish premiers Mr McGuinness said DUP leader Ian Paisley has set his face against power-sharing.

The Sinn Fein chief negotiator said the DUP had shown "no sign" of meeting the 24 November deadline based on the Preparation for Government committee.

"They sent in the Taleban - the Free Presbyterian fundamentalists," he said.

"We have had no signals whatsoever that these people are up for doing a deal.

"In the absence of any indication whatsoever that they are prepared to do the deal, I can only conclude that thus far Ian Paisley and the DUP have set their face against doing a deal by the deadline of 24 November - I hope they prove me wrong."

Earlier the UUP leader, Sir Reg Empey, said the Northern Ireland Office has used "crude and counter-productive methods in an attempt to influence political events".

Sir Reg said "the NIO has learned nothing over the years"

He was speaking after the BBC revealed an NIO document showed how much the DUP could lose if the devolution deadline was not met.

The confidential paper said it faced a £1.5m loss if the 24 November deadline passed without agreement.

However, Sir Reg said "such tactics had failed before".

"It seems that the NIO has learned nothing over the years," he said.

"If money was the main motivation of local politicians, why is Stormont suspended?

"There are some who will jump at the opportunity to burst through the 24 November deadline to prove 'how tough' they are and will wear this 'contrived sacrifice' as a badge of honour."

Earlier this year, the government introduced emergency legislation to enable the assembly to be recalled on 15 May and imposed an "immovable deadline" of 24 November in place for forming a power-sharing executive.

The government also confirmed the next assembly elections would be postponed until May 2008 if the executive is restored by this date.

'Severely affected'

The document said the DUP would lose money used to fund the office costs of DUP assembly members.

It also claimed the party's policy and press operations would be severely affected.

It states that, whilst the party will still have income through Westminster and Europe, its policy and press machinery is likely to be severely affected by the loss of its assembly income which ran to £215,000 last year.

Failure to set up devolved government could cost the DUP

The NIO document also states that cutting the office costs allowances of DUP assembly members would account for another £1.5m.

On Monday, DUP leader Ian Paisley accused the government of "blackmail" and said the tactic would not work.

He said it was "absolutely laughable" to suggest that his party would allow the loss of office allowances and wages to influence its judgement "on whether republicans have met the democratic test for government".

On 15 May, Northern Ireland's politicians took their seats in the Stormont assembly for the first time since October 2002.

A bid to elect a first minister and deputy first minister failed to gain the necessary cross-party support.

Devolved government was suspended over allegations of a republican spy ring. The court case that followed collapsed.

Direct rule from London was restored in October 2002 and has been in place since.