The prime minister yesterday hinted that the Northern Ireland peace process could be saved by a deal involving the three major pro-Good Friday Agreement parties coming together.

Tony Blair stressed at his monthly press conference that the anti-agreement DUP's victory over David Trimble's UUP in elections last week had been a "close run thing".

Welcoming the 70 per cent support for pro-agreement parties, his remarks were interpreted as signalling a possible way out of the impasse by changing the rules to allow the moderate majority to form a coalition executive.