Blair's new bid to break deadlock; PM pushes as peace process deadline loom.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to take personal charge of Ulster's deadlocked peace process. As political development enters a crucial stage, Mr Blair looks set to take a more hands-on approach.

Downing Street said yesterday that Mr Blair is to be "much more fully engaged" as the March 10 deadline for transferring powers to the fledgling Assembly nears. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "It's difficult but we believe the will is there. "People will be expecting to see progress towards that date.

"People get frustrated in this process if they don't see progress." He said the deadline was not set in stone, but added: "deadlines have served us well." Downing Street acknowledged that the issue of weapons handover was one of the most critical in the whole process.

The spokesman said: "It's one of the two issues we are clearly facing most difficulty on but we all know the political and other realities we're dealing with. "There are arguments on both sides that can claim right.

That's the reality. "It's going to require people to engage in, and move things forward. But we've been here before." Earlier Mr Blair met Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon at Downing Street to discuss the process.

The Prime Minister also talked over the situation briefly with US President Bill Clinton earlier this week when they were in Jordan for King Hussein's funeral. The formation of the Assembly executive is currently deadlocked as First Minister David Trimble refuses to sit in government with Sinn Fein unless the IRA gives up its weapons.

Sinn Fein insists decommissioning is not a precondition for the executive. And the difficulties ahead were underlined yesterday when the new Northern Ireland Unionist Party held its official launch at Stormont.

NIUP member Paddy Roche warned anti-Agreement unionists in the Ulster Unionist Party that it would be wrong to vote against their conscience next Monday in the vote on Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon's report on new government structures.

He said: "Mr Trimble is pursuing a foolish and dangerous strategy of taking us up to the brink of letting IRA/Sinn Fein in government and thinking he can either park, review or refuse to implement the Agreement.

"He is also sorely mistaken if he is relying on the SDLP in an Assembly vote to block IRA/Sinn Fein's participation in government. "Mr Trimble failed to get decommissioning and the dismantling of paramilitary organisations into the Agreement as a prerequisite for government, so the best way for all principled unionists to prevent IRA/Sinn Fein from taking office is to stand together and reject this report.

"Meanwhile, business and trade union leaders in Northern Ireland urged a new Assembly executive set up and simultaneous paramilitary decommissioning. They called on all politicians to "pull back from the collision course" for the good of the Province. Sir George Quigley, head of the G7 group, said: "That is what political reality requires and the creation of a normal, decent society demands."