03/26/2007
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, hailed the Sinn Fein-Democratic Unionist pact as the welcome culmination of the British and Irish governments' close cooperation on Northern Ireland since 1997.
"This is a very important day for the people of Northern Ireland and for the people of these islands ... Everything we have done over the last 10 years has been a preparation for this moment," Blair said in London.
"They have said we want peace and power sharing and people working together, and the political leadership has come in behind that and said we will deliver what the people want," Blair added.
Britain, which had long billed Monday as its "unbreakable" deadline for power-sharing to begin or for the Northern Ireland Assembly to be dissolved, signalled it would introduce an emergency bill to be rushed through both houses of Parliament in London by Tuesday.
This bill would permit the assembly, the 108-member legislature that is supposed to elect a 12-member administration, to keep operating through a new May 8 deadline.
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