N Irish politicans begin push to revive local govt

BELFAST, May 15 (Reuters) Northern Ireland's regional parliament met for the first time in nearly four years today as political enemies strove to overcome decades of mistrust and agree on how to share power.

Progress is expected to be slow. Assembly members will gather only briefly in the morning before the meeting is adjourned, then politicians are due to attend a garden party given by Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain later.

They have six weeks to agree on the make-up of a local government for the British-ruled province before a summer break and then a final deadline of November 24.

''We won't blink about that,'' Hain told Reuters in a telephone interview.

If they have not agreed by then, Britain and Ireland have vowed to scrap the Stormont assembly and continue direct rule from London with greater input from Dublin.

Hain was optimistic a deal could be done.

''I do think that there's a prospect of a new dawn breaking for democracy and self-government in Northern Ireland...I think the context is the right one for success to be achieved.'' He pointed to a pledge last year by Irish Republican Army paramilitaries -- who waged a bloody 30-year campaign against British rule -- to end violence for good, and a decision last month by pro-British hardliners to end a 16-year-old boycott of a British-Irish parliamentary group as positive signs of change.

London and Dublin decided earlier this year to recall the assembly in a fresh attempt to get opposing sides to agree an executive.

However, they face an uphill battle.

The Northern Ireland Assembly, born out of a 1998 peace deal, gave Irish nationalists and pro-British ''unionists'' joint control of the region's affairs and was seen as crucial to cementing peace after three decades of sectarian conflict.

It struggled to get off the ground and was suspended in 2002 after allegations that the IRA was involved in spying. Britain has ruled directly from Westminster since then.

Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the moderate architects of the deal have been superseded in popularity by more hardline counterparts -- the IRA's allies, Sinn Fein, and the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) -- making agreement on the make-up of a power-sharing government almost impossible.

Outspoken cleric and DUP leader Ian Paisley refuses to talk to Sinn Fein, let alone sit in government with the party, until it is convinced the IRA has ended violence for good.

In spite of an IRA pledge last year to do so and positive statements on the organisation's progress from the province's ceasefire watchdog, Paisley remains unconvinced.

REUTERS SHB SSC1632