UK OFFICIAL PRESSES N IRELAND LEADERS TO FORM NEW GOVT

LONDON: A senior British official met with rival Northern Ireland party leaders on Monday to press them to re-establish a power-sharing government amid uncertainty after Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein scored a historic victory in local elections. Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis held talks with leaders of the five parties that formed the last Executive, or devolved government, before it collapsed in February.

Sinn Fein, which seeks union with Ireland, overtook the rival Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in last week’s Northern Ireland Assembly elections to become the first Irish nationalist party to top the voting in Northern Ireland’s history.

It was a milestone for a party long associated with the paramilitary group Irish Republican Army, which sought to use violence to take Northern Ireland out of UK rule.