'SF to secure Deputy First Minister post within four years'

The DUP's Iris Robinson has predicted that a Sinn Fein MLA will hold the position of Deputy First Minister in the North after four more years of the Good Friday Agreement.

Speaking at a rally in Co Down last night, Mrs Robinson said the upcoming Assembly election offered unionists the chance to control their own future by voting for the DUP.

She claimed that unionism would be "consigned to terminal decline" unless the DUP prevented the re-election of David Trimble as First Minister, adding that the days of Ulster Unionist dominance were over.