Protestant leader rejects N Ireland power-sharing

Ian Paisley, head of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), took a hard line after emerging from talks with international monitors following their historic announcement Monday that the IRA had put its arsenal beyond use.

"It's a nonsense to say that decommissioning has been completed," Paisley said after he was briefed on the findings by John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian general who oversaw the disarmament process.

"We are not going into government with Sinn Fein," Paisley added.

Sinn Fein is the political wing of the IRA, the main Catholic paramilitary group, which fought for decades to end British rule in the province.

The British and Irish governments are hoping de Chastelain's announcement will kick-start talks to restore a joint Protestant-Catholic assembly after a three-year hiatus -- a key step toward a permanent peace settlement.

Paisley, who as DUP leader is crucial to any resumption of power-sharing, demanded more detailed evidence of disarmament and attacked the credibility of two clergymen who witnessed and certified the decommissioning drive.

Methodist pastor Harold Good and his Catholic counterpart Father Alex Reid backed de Chastelain's assessment that the IRA had acted on its July 28 pledge to ditch weapons.

But Paisley charged that the clergymen "were appointed by the IRA, not the governments."

In handing his report detailing the weapons decommissioning process to the British and Irish governments, de Chastelain had said he was satisfied that the dismantled arms "represent the totality of the IRA's arsenal."

He said the weapons put beyond use -- including surface-to-air missiles, flame throwers, machine guns, explosives and other arms -- matched estimates of the Catholic paramilitary group's arsenal produced by British and Irish security forces.