Sinn Fein to join assembly

2006-04-08 20:56

Dublin - Sinn Fein, the largest Catholic party in Northern Ireland, has decided to enter the assembly being reconvened by the Irish and British governments in Belfast next month.

Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams made the announcement on Saturday.

British prime minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern announced a new "road map" last Thursday.

The map is aimed at restoring a cross-community, power-sharing government in Belfast's Stormont parliament building.

They gave Northern Ireland's bickering Catholic and Protestant factions an ultimatum - to agree to set up a ruling executive, or see rule from London imposed with input from Dublin.

The 108 lawmakers, elected under a 1998 peace deal, would reconvene on May 15.

Discussing his party's decision to join the assembly, Adams said: "Our focus in doing so will be the formation of a power sharing government on the basis set out in the Good Friday Agreement.

"This also has to be the focus of the Irish and British governments."

Adams said the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), led by hardliner Ian Paisley, had to decide if they were to share power.

- SAPA