British PM cuts short holiday over N.Ireland row

BELFAST, Jan 4 (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew home early from a holiday in the United States today in a bid to head off the potential collapse of latest efforts to restore regional government in Northern Ireland.

''The prime minister has spent a significant amount of time over the past weeks talking to the leaders of Northern Ireland and he's returning to deal with this,'' a Downing Street spokesman said.

Blair flew home after failing in a series of phone calls to leaders of the British-ruled province's warring political parties to resolve a stand-off over policing -- one of the last obstacles to the restoration in March of a Protestant-Catholic power-sharing assembly.

Sinn Fein, the province's largest nationalist party, last night indicated a planned special meeting of its members to debate the issue later this month was in jeopardy because there had been no positive response from its pro-British political foe, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

But DUP lawmaker Nigel Dodds said today Sinn Fein had provided nothing tangible to merit a response.

''Instead of whingeing and running to Tony Blair, Sinn Fein should get on with doing what it is supposed to do,'' he said.

Acceptance of the police by Sinn Fein, whose largely Roman Catholic support base wants a united Ireland, would be a huge shift for a party that has long viewed the province's law and order system as biased in favour of Protestants.

The DUP refuses to sit on a Belfast-based executive with Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army's political ally, until it fully backs the rule of law.

The British and Irish governments, which jointly drew up the latest plans for resurrecting devolution late last year, have warned this could be the last chance for a long time to reach a political settlement in the province.

Blair has invested much political capital in resolving Northern Ireland's problems and is keen that when he leaves office this year the outlook there should be positive.

Despite its persistent political problems, Northern Ireland has been largely peaceful since the 1998 peace deal.

REUTERS DKA KN1650