Northern Ireland's largest Catholic party Sinn Fein yesterday agreed to support police in the British-run province, in a historic vote overcoming the last major hurdle to power-sharing government.

Delegates at a conference in Dublin voted overwhelmingly on a show of hands to back the Police Service of Northern Ireland, a key condition to restore power-sharing government in Belfast.

The landmark yes vote, which was widely expected, now shifts attention to the largest Protestant party the Democratic Unionists (DUP), which has said it is unwilling to form an executive with Sinn Fein without such an endorsement.

Earlier, Sinn Fein's leaders had urged party members to back the motion, which had been divisive among the wider republican movement which said it effectively meant endorsing Britain's presence in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and its chief negotiator Martin McGuinness received death threats, while the conference was picketed by dissident republican groups.

Republicans - who largely favour union with the Republic of Ireland in the south - have long perceived a Protestant bias within the PSNI and its predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Just this week, a police ombudsman's report said that the police colluded with and protected Protestant paramilitaries in the early 1990s.

"This (executive decision) acted in the national interest. We look to others to do the same in the national interest in the time ahead," Adams said.

Adams said the decision was about building Sinn Fein's political strength and giving "backbone" to Irish national politics.

To cheers and applause, he described it as a "huge decision".

Earlier, Adams had to run a gauntlet of protesters as well as a media scrum as he arrived for the meeting at the Royal Dublin Society conference centre.

The demonstrators included members of Republican Sinn Fein, a separate party formed in 1986 after Sinn Fein ended its abstentionist policy in the Irish parliament in Dublin and Belfast. Placards read "Yes to British withdrawal", "No British police, no British laws, no British courts acceptable in Ireland".

Adams acknowledged that not everyone within republicanism supported the change but as part of their preparations for government, "reaching out to unionism" was vital, he said.

"We now want to enter into the policing structures to bring about further change and to deliver accountable, civic, non-partisan policing for our people - all our people," he added.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the decision. A spokesman for his Downing Street office said: "The prime minister welcomes this historic decision and he recognises the leadership it has taken to get to this point."

"What a fantastic thing that would be - instead of waking up as we used to years ago to violence and terrorism in Northern Ireland, we have the prospect of peace," he had said before the crucial vote.

The regional government, which London and Dublin hope will resume work by March 26, folded four years ago after a spying scandal shattered an already fragile cross-party administration.

Adams offered, however, to meet the leaders of the dissident republican groups to listen to any alternative strategy they might have.

Sinn Fein's refusal to support policing has been a major stumbling block in efforts to restore the assembly, which has been suspended since 2002 amid allegations of a republican spy ring operating there.

In November, however, Ireland and Britain struck an accord in St Andrews, Scotland, aiming to restore power-sharing between Protestants, who mostly back retaining links with Britain, and Catholics.

The vote paves the way for elections to be called in March and for restoring the Northern Ireland assembly with responsibilities shared between Catholics and Protestants. A rejection of police support would have seen the assembly dissolved and Northern Ireland run indefinitely from London.

PHOTO CAPTION

President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, speaks at the special Ard Fheis (conference) to debate the contentious policing issue, in Dublin, Ireland. (AFP)

GTD