The Democratic Unionist Party tonight urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to push through emergency legislation to delay power sharing in Northern Ireland by six weeks.
The Rev Ian Paisley arrives at a meeting of his party's executive in Belfast today. Photograph: PA
The request was made after 90 per cent of the party's 120 executives backed the plan at a meeting in Belfast. The party had been under pressure to state that it was willing to share power next Monday.
However party sources today said they had made an offer of a date in May for power sharing if Mr Blair was prepared to defer it for six weeks.
Mr Blair and Northern Ireland Peter Hain had insisted since the St Andrews talks in October that either power would be devolved to the Assembly next Monday or it would be wound down.
However DUP members have been loathed to commit themselves to nominating ministers by the March 26th deadline, insisting that they still needed time before they could be sure that Sinn Fein's support for policing was for real.
Sources said that the DUP would not nominate on Monday on the understanding that they would in six weeks time and that a meeting of the Program for Government Committee would take place on March 26th featuring the Reverend Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.
The party was also pressing the British government to defer the introduction of water charges following indications that the controversial bill would be posted to Northern Ireland homes on Tuesday if there was no government in place at Stormont.
After the five hour meeting, Dr Paisley emerged to say that a party statement would be released detailing the resolution.
"We in Ulster are in a serious state because we have a dictation from the Government about things that people resent," the North Antrim MP declared.
"The Ulster people will be persuaded but they are not going to be driven.
"We will deliver to you later on the full content of the resolution and I think as the hours proceed you will have a closer conception and perception of what we are after."
Mr Paisley was surrounded by many of the party's senior figures including MPs Gregory Campbell, Nigel Dodds and the Reverend William McCrea who have had reservations about the March 26th deadline. However the party's MEP Jim Allistair did not join the DUP leader afterwards, prompting speculation about whether he was on board the six-week proposal.
Northern Ireland Office sources insisted, however, that they had not agreed to any emergency legislation on Monday to delay the formation of the power sharing government.
"At this stage we are in the same position as we have been all week," one source said. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain did, however, meet Ulster Unionist Party leader Sir Reg Empey and SDLP leader Mark Durkan at Hillsborough Castle.
Speculation mounted earlier that the British government may suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly for a number of weeks, despite earlier insisting on the Monday deadline.
Sir Reg claimed that a proposal was being considered which would see Mr Blair introduce legislation on Monday to suspend the debate on the British budget.
"This legislation (in the House of Commons) would have the effect of suspending the Assembly from one minute past midnight on Tuesday for eight weeks", Mr Empey said.
As last minute meetings took place Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams cancelld a Dublin press conferecen and headed to Belfast. Mr Adams confirmed that he had been in contact with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and he expressed concern that some elements in the DUP and in the British government had become unsettled in recent days.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern earlier broke away from the Fianna Fáil Ardfheis to hold a 20-minute telephone conversation with Mr Blair to review current developments as the March 26th deadline loomed.
Minister fir Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said: "We are coming to the endgame in relation to the template set out in the St Andrew's Agreement.
"The legislation — passed in the House of Commons, the House of Lords and which got royal assent — clearly stated the deadline for which the people then voted.
"There is no doubt the DUP have a lot of soul searching going on as we speak, but the pendulum has come over to them as to whether they are prepared to share power with nationalists once and for all."
Northern parties have previously been told that if no power-sharing executive is formed, the Assembly will be wound up and the Northern Ireland Office team of ministers will continue to push ahead with plans to introduce water charges on April 1st, end academic selection and restrict rural planning.
Northern Ireland's politicians would also lose the £51 billion economic package offered by Gordon Brown to a new devolved government.
Additional reporting PA