Two girls hurt in Belfast clashes

Trimble, centre, and his ministers have pulled out of the assembly

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Two young girls have been injured in violence between Catholic and Protestant residents as political stalemate the Northern Ireland peace process continues.

Northern Ireland's Secretary of State, John Reid, has until midnight on Thursday to rescue devolved regional government after three Ulster Unionist ministers pledged to walk away from the administration.

At that point Reid will have to decide whether to suspend Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly for a third time, longer than the previous tactical 24 hour suspension, or call new elections to the assembly.

Tensions remain high on the streets with an eight-year-old and 11-year-old being injured in an explosion blamed by police on loyalists in northern Belfast late Sunday.

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

They were treated in hospital, one for a shrapnel wound to her back and the other for shock.

Assistant Chief Constable for Belfast, Alan McQuillan, said: "We believe at this stage that it was some form of blast device and that it was thrown from the loyalist side towards the nationalists and that the children injured were on the nationalist side."

Reid branded the loyalists who threw the device at the girls as "quite simply, scum".

The secretary of state added: "They bring disgrace on all of us in Northern Ireland. They need to be captured, prosecuted and locked up where their poisonous sectarian hatred can do no damage."

Earlier a man was injured when a gunman opened fire from the nationalist side of the Limestone Road divide. The victim, a Protestant, was taken to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for a bullet wound in the chest and was later reported to be in a stable condition.

The girls were hurt as rival factions continued to throw fireworks at each other and engaged in sporadic stoning at several spots in north Belfast.

An army bomb disposal team later took away the remains of a blast device for examination.

Earlier they defused an unexploded pipe bomb and made safe a large firework with shrapnel packed around it found in the area.

At the height of the trouble which started during the afternoon and continued into the night, about 100 nationalists and 50 loyalists were involved at several flash-points.

Police in full riot gear were called in to separate the factions and to keep them apart.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams called on UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to take action to help resolve the political impasse.

Martin McGuinness, chief negotiator for Sinn Fein arrived in Washington on Sunday for a series of political meetings.

Reid said the two issues that needed to be resolved were putting paramilitary arms beyond use and stabilising the political institutions of Northern Ireland.

Reid: "Parties -- and the paramilitary groups -- have to play their part"

While declining to specify blame for the crisis, Reid predicted that the Ulster Unionists would resume their posts if the IRA made what he called a "historic step" by allowing disarmament officials to scrap some of the group's weapons.

Trimble only 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.

However, the IRA has yet to carry out a May 2000 pledge to put its hidden weapons stockpiles "beyond use," a euphemism for disarmament.