Northern Ireland set for new dawn

The 108-seat Northern Ireland Assembly, where rival Protestants and Catholics will share power, is to be revived after four-and-a-half years during which the peace process stalled.

Firebrand Protestant preacher Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionists (DUP), is to become the province's first minister, while convicted terrorist Martin McGuinness of the opposing Catholic Sinn Fein party will be his deputy -- a prospect, which would have been unthinkable even five years ago.

McGuinness on Sunday insisted that the coalition of the DUP and Sinn Fein would succeed, saying that governing with the DUP would show that self-rule was a more favourable alternative to being controlled by London.

"We are determined that this latest political initiative will not fail. We want to build a new relationship with unionists on this island," he said.

"We want to demonstrate to them the benefits of sitting down and resolving problems ourselves and overcoming challenges without the need or interference of British ministers with no mandate in Ireland."

That the two sides have been able to come together in government is an extraordinary triumph after years of painstaking progress -- one that outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be keen to claim as his own.