N. Ireland Talks End With Plan

Around-the-clock talks adjourned Thursday without resolving the crisis besetting Northern Ireland's peace accord. But the British and Irish Prime Ministers predicted they would soon achieve a breakthrough.

Britain's Tony Blair and Ireland's Bertie Ahern unveiled a joint initiative after four days and nights of negotiations failed to clear the way for a new Protestant-Catholic administration for Northern Ireland.

Blair called the halt "a short pause for reflection," and said talks would resume April 13.

The British government abandoned its intention to convene Northern Ireland's new legislature Thursday and challenge its members, regardless of the outcome of negotiations, to nominate the administration's 10 unfilled posts.

While that apparent make-or-break deadline injected an air of crisis into this week's talks, politicians on both sides warned that the British plans would have ruined the historic accord reached on Good Friday last year.

Instead, Blair and Ahern announced their determination to persuade the eight participating parties to accept a plan for a "national day of reconciliation."

The holiday would provide Northern Ireland's rival outlawed paramilitary groups, the Irish Republican Army and various pro-British gangs, a focal point to start disarmament that has been the main issue bedeviling peacemaking efforts for four years.

The initiative was designed to allow the major Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, to agree to go into government with the IRA allied Sinn Fein party.

Throughout this week's talks, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble resisted efforts to get his party to support Sinn Fein's participation in the administration without the IRA disarming themselves first.

Dermot Nesbitt, a spokesman for the Ulster Unionists, said the party recognizes that the IRA and Sinn Fein, known collectively as the Republican Movement, have "a right to a place in government."

"But the republican movement must fulfill its responsibilities under the accord to earn that right, and that means a commitment and a schedule to disarm," Nesbitt said shortly before the premiers' announcement.

Sinn Fein leaders resisted calls for them to provide a firm timetable for IRA disarmament in exchange for Ulster Unionists' recognition of their right to hold office.

Sinn Fein Chairman Mitchel McLaughlin insisted the accord doesn't require the IRA to disarm. He said, however, that IRA commanders might "voluntarily" make an arms gesture if Sinn Fein politicians were allowed to exercise a share of power in the new government.

By Shawn Pogatchnik