By Brendan Anderason

A BRITISH-Irish bid to restore devolved government to the North has stumbled at the first hurdle after hard-line Loyalist Ian Paisley pulled out of a crucial meeting.

Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) stymied further political progress after a dispute on Tuesday with Northern Secretary Peter Hain of the timing of an oath.

Following an important breakthrough in all-party talks last Friday at St. Andrew’s in Scotland announced by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish leader Bertie Ahern, Assembly Members were expected to elect Paisley and Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness as shadow first minister and deputy first minister on November 24.

The posts would remain in shadow form until endorsement at the planned restoration of the Assembly in March.

A Program for Government Committee meeting intended to help fine-tune the settlement was scheduled for Tuesday.

Paisley and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams were due to attend the meeting which would have represented significant progress and marked the first time the two party heads had held face-to-face discussions.

However, early Tuesday there were rumblings of DUP discontent over the timing of a ministerial pledge of support for policing and law in the North. The party wanted McGuinness to take the pledge before the November deadline even though he would have not have been in power.

After a meeting with the DUP failed to resolve the issue, Hain decided to postpone the Program for Government Committee talks.

It remains unclear so far whether the DUP had genuine concerns about the timing of the pledge-taking or, as skeptics suggest, the dispute was manufactured because of the party’s long-term reluctance to sit in government with Republicans.

The actual taking of the pledge to support law and order is not believed to present a major problem to the Sinn Fein leadership. Adams has stated several times that he would take the issue to a special Ard Fheis (party convention). Adams remains confident he can win his party’s support for acceptance of the police.

The problem for McGuinness is that the DUP want him to take the pledge before the Ard Fheis gives him its blessing.

Confusion still surrounds the reasoning behind Paisley’s pull-out from the meeting. A British government spokesman said Monday the pledge would be enacted into law by November 24, but that Paisley and McGuinness would not be required to take it until the Assembly was restored in March.

After announcing the postponing of Tuesday’s meeting Northern Secretary Hain described the hold-up as “a glitch,” which he had expected.

“I think we will get through this and we need to get through this, for otherwise I close the place down. The parties all understand that,” Hain said.

Paisley would not take questions from journalists Tuesday but claimed he was in possession of a letter from the British government backing up his stance. If the government denied this, Paisley said, he would produce it publicly and “shove it down their throat.”

In contrast, Adams was relatively relaxed about the issue. Many people would be disappointed by the DUP's decision, he said but it “was not the end of the process” and he wanted the party to resolve the problem.

"Mr. Paisley has accused the British government of bad faith. He has not accused Sinn Fein of bad faith. He obviously has the political resolution to that problem in his own hands,” Adams said.

“He should talk directly to Sinn Fein on these matters. Sinn Fein has put forward suggestions about the pledge of office which would, in our opinion strengthen it. If Mr. Paisley has other suggestions, then he should come along and talk to us and resolve these issues. I hope he does so speedily.

"There was a problem today. We didn't create the problem. Mr. Paisley has to resolve the problem he has highlighted and I wish him well in doing that. Within the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and our rights and our entitlements, and the future for all of the people who live on this island, then Sinn Fein will be helpful,” Adams said.

Hopes of an agreement on power-sharing government were unexpectedly raised last week following negotiations involving the two governments and all the North’s political parties in Scotland.

The three days of talks at St. Andrews had taken on the familiar stench of stalemate when a breakthrough appeared to be reached unexpectedly on Friday afternoon. Talks had been due to end at noon but dragged on for another few hours.

The “St. Andrews Agree-ment,” a road map for the return of devolved government, was given by the Irish and British leaders to the parties, who were asked to study it and give their response by November 10. To the astonishment of many, none of the four main parties demurred -- until the DUP’s about-face on Tuesday.

Provided the issue of the timing of the pledge-taking is settled, the timetable for implementation of the St. Andrews Agreement would be as follows:

*Parties consult, including the DUP Assembly group, the Sinn Fein ArdComhairle (executive) and other appropriate party bodies, on the St. Andrews Agreement, and respond by November 10.

*October 17: The new Program for Government Committee begins regular meetings to agree priorities for new Executive, with parties represented at leadership level. (This meeting was postponed when Paisley pulled out.)

*November 20-21: Legis-lation enacted at West-minster to give effect to the St. Andrews agreement, including practical changes to the institutionsenshrined in the Good Friday Agreement.

*November 24: Assembly meets to nominate shadow first minister and deputy first minister.

*January: The ceasefire watchdog, the Indepen-dent Monitoring Commiss-ion, will publish its report, widely expected to confirm IRA inactivity.

*March: Endorsement by the electorate of the St. Andrews Agreement. This will take the form either of an election or a referendum or perhaps both.

*March 14: Party leaders will nominate members of the Assembly Executive.

*March 26: Power will be devolved from London and the d’Hondt system, safeguarding the Assem-bly’s cross-community voting arrangements.

Failure to agree to establish the Executive will lead to immediate dissolution of the Assembly, as will failure to agree at any stage, and the governments will take forward new partnership arrangements on the basis previously announced.

"I think we have a way forward. We have been through different parts of this process many times over the past few years, but I think this is a sound basis,” Blair said in a joint press conference with Ahern at St. Andrews on Friday.

"Of course, everyone has had to make compromises during the course of these negotiations to get what they wanted . . . it gives us a chance to have institutions that are up and running, that are secure on a cross community basis where all parties are in government working together for a shared future in Northern Ireland."

Ahern agreed. "If not perfect by everybody's agenda, it's a fair andsustainable balance to try by March to make sure we have a working executive based on power-sharing and an acceptance of policing and the rule of law and order."

Among those in the U.S. reacting positively to the developments in St. Andrews were Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

“Today’s announcement of the results of multiparty talks facilitated by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is an encouraging sign that progress continues toward implementation of the tenets of the Good Friday Agreement,” she said.

“It is critical that Northern Ireland move toward a full, democratic government. I encourage all parties involved to look carefully at the proposal now on the table. So much has been accomplished in this process and I am hopeful that the remaining important steps are taken toward realizing lasting peace.”