Assembly election delayed for a month to give peace process breathing space

Tony Blair announced a month's postponement of elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly early this morning after failing to reach full agreement with parties following two days of talks.

The negotiations ended without a breakthrough but the British and Irish governments and most other elements concluded that enough progress had been made to keep the province's political process on track.

The elections will be held on 28 May with several key issues so far unresolved. In particular, Sinn Fein said it was completely opposed to British and Irish government proposals for a package of sanctions against parties deemed to be in default of political undertakings.

Mr Blair and the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, are to return to Northern Ireland in early April to present parties with a final document.

The original election date had been 1 May, but extra time will be needed to clear up the outstanding issues. The Government's position had been that it had no plans to postpone elections, but many observers thought it possible they could be shelved. Legislation will be needed to shift the election date, but this is not seen as a problem. Earlier yesterday, a new element of uncertainty appeared when the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, left the talks at Hillsborough Castle, near Belfast, to fly to London. His departure suggested plans to set an election date would be thrown into doubt.

Mr Blair's continuing presence at the talks meant he missed an audience with the Queen, and delegated Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to stand in for him at a Downing Street meeting with Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, at Downing Street.

The widespread sense yesterday was that the talks, chaired by Mr Blair and Mr Ahern, had not hit the jackpot of across-the-board agreement. The agenda included policing, criminal justice, the treatment of republican fugitives and, above all, the question of how to resurrect the suspended Belfast assembly.

But significant movement appears to have been made on contentious issues, such as policing, which until now had posed serious problems. If a new deal is nailed down it will open the prospect not just of a restoration of the assembly but also of moves to give it policing and justice powers.

The talks were held on the basis of a 28-page blueprint by the British and Irish governments, detailing the most difficult issues. A final document is now expected to be published early next month, in effect providing the background for an election campaign to decide which are the larger parties within both Unionism and nationalism. A document that is acceptable to both Unionists and Sinn Fein is expected to produce a significant response from the IRA.

The Sinn Fein chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin, said a deal was close. He said: "What we are going through are teething problems."

Mr Trimble said: "The logic of the republican position points towards them doing something. The question is ­ will it be enough?"