Leaders seek to save Northern Ireland government

HILLSBOROUGH, Northern Ireland — The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland presented rival Catholic and Protestant leaders with last-ditch proposals Tuesday designed to keep their power-sharing government from unraveling.

The 21/2-year-old coalition at the heart of Northern Ireland peacemaking is on the brink of collapse following a long-running dispute over when it will take responsibility from Britain for the province's police and justice system.

The Irish Catholics of Sinn Fein say the move is years overdue — and are threatening to withdraw from the coalition, triggering its destruction, unless the British Protestants of the Democratic Unionist Party stop vetoing the objective.

The prime ministers, Gordon Brown of Britain and Brian Cowen of Ireland, also want the Protestants to stop stalling, as does U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who telephoned Brown and Sinn Fein leaders during the course of Tuesday's negotiations.

But the Democratic Unionists countered that they wouldn't cave in to outside pressure or artificial deadlines posed by anyone.

"If it isn't a good deal, whether the (British) prime minister is here or not, it won't make a difference to us," Democratic Unionist leader Peter Robinson said.

The prime ministers, determined not to leave Northern Ireland without a breakthrough, planned to keep talking past midnight for a second straight night and make a final push for agreement Wednesday. Both were staying at the Hillsborough Castle negotiating venue southwest of Belfast.

Throughout Tuesday's negotiations, the Democratic Unionists held out for their own controversial concessions, particularly the right of Protestant groups to resume marching near hostile Sinn Fein districts. Britain has curtailed that explosive tradition over the past decade with a powerful Parades Commission that the Protestants want abolished.

The British and Irish governments presented a compromise plan that, while gap-filled and incomplete, seeks to give both Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists part of what they both want.

The documents offered a choice of options. These included a potential May target date for transferring justice powers, and a successor organization for the Parades Commission that would stress mediation between Protestant marching groups and their Catholic opponents. The existing commission imposes restrictions on parade routes but doesn't mediate between the sides.