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N Irish peace deal hit by leadership challenge

BELFAST: Northern Ireland's already troubled peace process was shaken further on Thursday by reports of a looming leadership challenge to top Protestant politician David Trimble.

The Reverend Martin Smyth, a staunch opponent of the Good Friday peace agreement for the British province, planned to stand against Trimble for the right to lead the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) -- Northern Ireland's main Protestant political group, party sources told Reuters.

"It was decided that Martin would stand against David because to not do so would suggest that he had the full backing of the party -- which he does not and we have to demonstrate that," said one source opposed to the Good Friday deal.

Such a move would seriously damage efforts by Britain, the Irish Republic and the United States to revive the peace process because Trimble has been the key player from the province's Protestant majority in the long-running negotiations.

The showdown with Smyth could take place when the UUP's 800-strong council meets on Saturday.

The peace process hit a crisis last month when Britain suspended a fledgling home-rule government of Protestants and Roman Catholics over the failure of IRA guerrillas to disarm.

UUP opponents of the Good Friday accord seized on reported remarks by Trimble to accuse him of going soft on Irish Republican Army disarmament.

Trimble denied on Wednesday that he was ready to kick-start the peace process without guerrilla disarmament, saying he was quoted out of context at talks in Washington last week.

He signed up to to the 1998 Good Friday accord and has managed to keep his party on board the peace process despite stiff internal opposition.

Leader of the UUP since 1995, he is a seasoned campaigner and is used to having to fight hard to get his way.

Trimble won 58 percent support from his party's council to go into the power-sharing, home-rule government with the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein late last year.

Smyth could be a strong opponent, having been a former Grand Master of the Orange Order -- a mass pro-British Protestant movement.

The Orange Order was named after King William of Orange, a Protestant monarch who defeated the Catholic King James II at the 1690 Battle of the Boyne.

More than 100 Orange Order members belong to the UUP's council and will no doubt favour Smyth.

Trimble said on Wednesday it would not be enough for the IRA to simply declare it had ended its war against British rule in Northern Ireland.

Republican "assurances" on disarmament were needed to end the current impasse, he said.

Trimble was quoted as saying in Washington that he was "not ruling...out" rejoining a home-rule government with republicans without the physical handover of weapons. This was widely interpreted as a sign of new flexibility by the UUP leader.

The IRA and other mainstream guerrilla groups are observing ceasefires but dissident gunmen have been responsible for sporadic violence. About 3,600 people have been killed in three decades of sectarian and political conflict in Northern Ireland.-Reuters