By Brendan Anderson

THE latest bid by the Irish and British governments to restore devolved government to the North looks doomed to failure even before the premiers arrive for talks this week.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair travel to Armagh Thursday to unveil what they claim is their final attempt to resurrect the ill-fated power-sharing Assembly at Stormont.

The plan has been heavily leaked as a recall of the Assembly which would sit for a number of six-week sessions as a “shadow” body while their work was overseen by direct rule ministers.

Ahern and Blair have set November 24 as the deadline for parties to elect an Executive. The two leaders have strongly hinted that if no government is elected by that date, they will close down the Assembly and run the North under joint Irish-British authority.

Although the blueprint closely resembles a shadow Assembly-type scheme put forward by Ian Paisley’s anti-Agreement Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the veteran Loyalist politician has declared there is no possibility of him sitting in government with Republicans.

The importance given to the talks by the DUP is reflected in the fact that half of the party’s MPs will be in the U.S. when the Irish and British leaders arrive to announce their plan on Thursday.

And, for different reasons, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams also appears to be singularly unimpressed with the government’s plan. His party, he said firmly, was not interested in taking part in any “half-way house or shadow Assembly.”

Paisley, who celebrates his 80th birthday on the day the prime ministers arrive, claimed Republicans have “still not done enough” to gain the trust of Unionists.

“I have read the papers, I have read all the conflicting reports from various politicians who think they know and to say that they’re going to call the Assembly together to try to get an Executive set up is absolutely nonsense.

“They can’t do that and it’s not going to happen, because the foundation for such a decision is not even laid and the foundation, of course, must be the end of terrorism,” Paisley said.

However, speaking to journalists after meeting Blair in London on Tuesday, Paisley was in enigmatic mood. It would take a miracle, he said, for the parties to elect an Executive by the November deadline.

“Miracles happen. If we have a real miracle it could happen. I don’t know the pressures that are on the IRA. I don’t know what they are thinking. They have to make their own response,” he added.

Martin McGuinness was a member of a Sinn Fein delegation which met Blair at Downing Street on Monday. McGuinness, in one of the better lines from politicians in recent weeks, said his party “would go into government with the DUP, but would not go into limbo with them.”

The Mid-Ulster MP said they had told Blair that the suggestion of a shadow Assembly scrutinized by direct rule ministers was unacceptable to his party.

“We need to restore the political institutions and we need to do that immediately. We believe the sole task of the Assembly is the formation of a power-sharing government as set out in the Good Friday Agreement and if the DUP refuse to allow this to happen then the governments have to move ahead,” he said.

Mark Durkan, leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, said the idea of a shadow Assembly with scrutiny committees was not an acceptable replacement for “full-blown power-sharing.”