British and Irish ministers begin the arduous search for a way to save the Northern Ireland peace process on Saturday, after election triumphs for hard-liners shattered hopes of a speedy return to power-sharing.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley talks to the media at DUP headquarters in Belfast during elections to the Northern Ireland power sharing assembly, November 28, 2003.   [Reuters]

Britain's chief minister in the province, Paul Murphy, was to launch a series of meetings with local politicians following a poll which sharpened divisions between unionists from the Protestant majority, who favor continued British rule, and Catholics who want to join the south in a united Ireland.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led by Protestant cleric Ian Paisley, a diehard opponent of the province's five-year-old peace accord, emerged as the largest in the mothballed legislature when vote-counting was completed on Friday.

The Irish Republican Army's (IRA's) political ally Sinn Fein -- whose leaders Paisley brands "murderers and reprobates" and refuses to speak to -- was the big winner among Catholic voters.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly, the centerpiece of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, has been suspended since October last year when a shaky Protestant/Catholic coalition broke down over allegations of IRA spying.

London and Dublin had hoped Wednesday's twice-delayed election would provide impetus for rival politicians to reach a deal on restoring the assembly and so safeguard the 1998 deal, which aimed to end three decades of sectarian violence.

But with two parties who plainly cannot work together entitled to the top posts of first and deputy first minister in any new home rule administration, the prospects of a swift restoration of power-sharing are bleak.

BACK TO DRAWING BOARD

"There'll be no first minister under me," the 77-year-old Paisley told Reuters. "We have to go back to the drawing board."

Despite the triumph of the anti-agreement DUP over the moderate Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) led by former first minister David Trimble, London and Dublin insist the "fundamentals (of the Good Friday deal) are not open to renegotiation."

"In our firm view, the Good Friday Agreement remains the only viable political framework that is capable of securing the support of both communities in Northern Ireland," the British and Irish governments said in a statement.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, buoyed by a result which saw his party eclipse the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) as the leading voice for minority Catholics, was set to meet Murphy on Saturday.

Adams' party took 24 seats in the 108-member assembly, swapping positions with the SDLP which won 18. On the Protestant side, Paisley's DUP won 30 seats and the UUP 27.

The result was a serious blow to the credibility of Trimble, whose party has been the dominant force among the Protestant majority since the foundation of Northern Ireland in 1921, and prompted immediate speculation he might quit or be forced out.

"I've every intention of continuing as leader," Trimble, who shared a Nobel peace prize for his role in negotiating the 1998 accord, told reporters. "I have demonstrated clearly in the last eight years that there's more than a little stickability here."

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