In a bid to put the best face on the issue, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said peace was still in sight and announced plan to try to break a stalemate over guerrilla disarmament after the province's main political parties failed to end the impasse themselves.

But the end result was that the deadlock wrecked British plans to implement last April's Good Friday peace accord by its anniversary on April 2.

Hailed as a political miracle, the Good Friday accord addresses opposing interests of a Protestant majority which wants Northern Ireland to stay British and a Roman Catholic minority which suffered decades of discrimination and sees the province as part of Ireland.