Trimble in threat over elections

David Trimble today vowed to block a restoration of the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland because of the IRA’s refusal to declare its campaign of violence is over.

With a majority of the parties in Belfast expecting British Prime Minister Tony Blair to confirm May 29 as the date for new elections to the Stormont Assembly, the Ulster Unionist leader vowed to keep republicans out of the decision making process until the IRA abandoned the gun and effectively stood down.