Paisley to step down as first minister

By Anne Cadwallader

BELFAST (Reuters) - Ian Paisley, a Protestant who set aside decades of hatred to share power with his Catholic foes, will step down as Northern Ireland's First Minister in May.

A spokesman for the 81-year-old Protestant cleric who has been a towering figure in Northern Irish politics for half a century said he would step down after hosting a visit by top U.S. business executives that ends on May 9.

Northern Ireland's rival politicians are hoping to attract foreign investment to the province, ravaged by three decades of bloodshed that ended with a peace deal in 1998 and a historic power-sharing agreement last year.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern described Paisley as a "giant figure in the history of these islands" and expressed confidence that peace was secure in Northern Ireland.

"I can say with certainty that the leadership he has shown in recent years means that future generations of Irish people, North and South, will live in a peace and prosperity that previous generations could only dream of," Ahern said.

The Good Friday Agreement reached in 1998 largely ended 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland that killed more than 3,600 people, but tension persists in some parts of the province between the Protestant majority and the minority Catholics.

Martin McGuinness, the province's deputy first minister and a senior member of the predominantly Catholic Sinn Fein party, described Paisley's departure as the end of an era.

"It's obviously a momentous decision for him and for the political process, but obviously I look forward to working with whoever is elected leader of the DUP and first minister," said McGuinness, a former commander in the Irish Republican Army.