A Birmingham car bomb was "meant to kill", the police said yesterday.

The Real IRA was identified as the most likely suspect for the partially exploded city centre bomb on Saturday night.

The attack came as pro-Stormont parties and the British and Irish governments reached a deal to re-run Friday's assembly vote in which David Trimble narrowly failed in his bid to be elected first minister.

The Alliance Party will today redesignate some of its members as "unionists" in order to secure Trimble's election.

But Ian Paisley's anti-agreement Democratic Unionist Party is to mount a legal challenge to the second vote, as it takes place after the deadline for electing new first and deputy first ministers.