KEY POINTS:
BELFAST - Northern Ireland's Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders, arch-foes during decades of bloodshed, have launched a new power-sharing government in the British province, aiming to put a final end to violence.
The government headed by firebrand Protestant cleric Ian Paisley completes a remarkable transformation of Northern Ireland
from a symbol of violence and religious hatred into a peaceful, thriving community.
Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, his former enemy and now deputy first minister, took a pledge of office at a surprisingly light-hearted ceremony at the imposing Stormont parliament building outside Belfast.
The government, which will oversee day-to-day affairs, will help to ensure stability in the province which, since a 1998 peace deal, has largely ended 30 years of sectarian conflict that killed 3,600 people.
The party leaders and guests including the British and Irish prime ministers and a US delegation with Irish-American Senator Edward Kennedy underscored the momentous, historic nature of the event.
"From the depths of my heart I can say to you today that I believe Northern Ireland has come to a time of peace, a time when hate will no longer rule," Paisley said.
McGuinness said it was a historic day, noting: "What we're going to see today is one of the mightiest leaps forward that this process has seen in almost 15 years."
Violence in Northern Ireland saw British soldiers in the streets in combat gear and a concerted campaign of gun and bomb attacks by the Irish Republican Army, which claimed about half the victims in their fight to break away from British rule.
In 1979, in one of its most high-profile attacks, the IRA killed Queen Elizabeth's uncle, Lord Montbatten, when it planted a bomb on his boat off Mullaghmore in Ireland.
Mainland Britain was also targeted. Two pub bombings in Birmingham in 1974 killed 21 people and injured 162 others, heightening tension throughout the country.
The IRA came within a inch of killing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984 when a bomb exploded at a hotel she and leading members of her Conservative Party were staying.
The group also targeted Thatcher's successor as prime minister, John Major, when it fired mortar bombs at his London residence in 1991.
A bomb in Victoria station in London also in 1991 preceded a spate of alerts and hoaxes on the underground and train network, snarling transport and frustrating commuters.
The restoration of self-government in Northern Ireland drew congratulations from US President George W. Bush: "I applaud the people of this region for your desire to overcome a history of violence and division," he said in a message.
Germany, as president of the European Union, said it ushered in a new era of stability and reconciliation.
"It gives hope and optimism to all those in other parts of the world working for the peaceful resolution of conflicts," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
The 80-year-old Paisley heads Northern Ireland's biggest Protestant group, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which is committed to Northern Ireland remaining a part of Britain.
The mainly Catholic Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, ultimately wants to see the province united with the prodominantly Catholic Irish Republic. Until recently, Paisley refused to talk to Sinn Fein, as he viewed it indistinguishable from the IRA. McGuinness is a former member of the IRA.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, expected to announce his resignation date this week, said Northern Ireland's people had achieved something many said could not be done.
Outside, a small group of demonstrators held up a banner with the slogan: "No unrepentant terrorists in government".
Paisley, McGuinness and other ministers in the devolved government took a pledge of office that includes a commitment to non-violence and support for policing in the British province.
The government will have authority over day-to-day issues but London will hold sovereignty and the purse strings.
- REUTERS
