Crisis talks to heal N. Irish rift

Trimble: IRA has failed to meet pledges

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- British and Irish government officials are due to meet to try to heal the latest rupture in Northern Ireland's power-sharing unity government.

Three Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) ministers pulled out at midnight on Thursday and said they would not return until the Irish Republican Army (IRA) began to hand in its weapons. Two ministers from the hardline Democratic Unionist Party also announced their intention to resign.

It is the latest blow for the peace process since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which set up devolved government in Belfast. One of the terms of the agreement, paramilitaries handing over their weapons, has been the major obstacle.

UK Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid, who was expected to meet Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen in Dublin on Friday, now has a week to decide whether to suspend the assembly again, impose direct rule from London or call for new elections.

AUDIO David Trimble: "This was a last resort" 1.24 MB / 1 min 58 secs WAV sound

British and Irish government sources were unwilling to be drawn on what course of action Dr. Reid might take.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, who had already resigned as the assembly's first minister, told CNN on Thursday stepping back was very much a last resort, but one that his three ministers took to avoid the assembly collapsing entirely.

He added: "It's still up to the IRA. They can still save the situation by doing what they promised to do 18 months ago. I wish they would."

Republican party Sinn Fein called the latest move "unhelpful" and said it was committed to finding a solution to the crisis.

Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, who is education minister in the assembly, told the British Broadcasting Corporation on Friday he was "very disappointed" by the Ulster Unionist resignations, saying Trimble and his colleagues were engaged in an "onward march away from the Good Friday Agreement."

Trimble said his party had spent 18 months in the government with representatives of Sinn Fein without the IRA putting its weapons beyond use.

"For those 18 months the republican movement have done nothing, nothing at all to reciprocate the sacrifice and risks we have made.

"I don't particularly welcome the resumption of direct rule from London but that will come about quite soon if the IRA don't move."

Speculation had mounted this week that the IRA was on the brink of a move towards decommissioning its weapons. It had been hoped the IRA could agree with disarmament officials to seal one or more of its hidden arms dumps with concrete.

The outlawed group has already allowed foreign diplomats to visit a few dumps in secret.

The assembly cannot survive without the participation of either the Ulster Unionists or the largest Catholic-supported party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

Reid travelling to Dublin discuss possible response to resignations

CNN's European political editor Robin Oakley says the move by the Ulster Unionists means Northern Ireland is facing another crisis after a summer of disappointment and an upsurge of cross-community violence.

He said the danger of calling new elections was that there was evidence from June's UK general election of an increase in support for hardline parties opposed to the peace agreement.

Trimble agreed in November 1999 to form a four-party government in Northern Ireland that included Sinn Fein, on condition that IRA disarmament followed.

Since the assembly was formed, London has suspended it three times, first in February 2000 then twice for 24-hour periods this summer, in response to political crises.