A CALL by the Ulster Unionists yesterday for a devolved assembly for

Northern Ireland without delay could spell the end of the Government's

attempt to achieve an all-Ireland peace solution.

Ulster Unionist leader James Molyneaux declared that his party would

not take part in any further talks involving the Irish Government until

an internal political settlement in Northern Ireland has been achieved.

Ministers were taken aback and both Downing Street and Northern

Ireland Office sources said they would require ''clarification'' of Mr

Molyneaux's remarks, ironically as they are resisting Sinn Fein demands

for clarification of the UK-Irish declaration.

But they seemed not to have fully grasped that their Irish strategy

had unravelled, with both the Unionist parties rejecting further talks

with the Republic until a purely British settlement of the province's

political future was reached.

The development creates a major problem for the UK-Irish Council due

to meet in London next week, when Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick

Mayhew and Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring could find their

Governments' grand strategy for Ireland torpedoed.

A clearly alarmed Irish Government was seeking as much information

about Mr Molyneaux's news conference as possible and Irish Prime

Minister Albert Reynolds said: ''An internal settlement has not worked

in the past and will not work in the future.''

Sinn Feinn leader Martin McGuinness, was quick to demand that the

British Government made clear that the Unionists had no veto over

constitutional change in Northern Ireland and added that, if that could

be given, ''I think we are moving into a dramatically changed

situation''.

SDLP leader John Hume said the move looked like an attempt to bring

back power in Northern Ireland into purely Unionist hands.

But Mr Molyneaux, speaking on BBC Radio Four's World At One programme,

said that ''by common consent'' the Joint Declaration ''has run its

course''.

He said the ''weasel words'' of Sinn Feinn leaders Gerry Adams and

Martin McGuinness at their party's recent conference ''do not fool

anyone who knows the stuff of which they are made''. It would be a

mistake for the British Government to be ''strung along'' any longer.

Earlier at Westminster, he presented a ''Blueprint for Stability''

proposing an 85-seat assembly for the province which could deal with the

Government of the Republic on issues of common interest.

Based on the talks the British Government has had with the various

parties, Mr Molyneuax said he believed progress could be made on setting

up an Assembly ''immediately''.

This was welcomed by the Rev. Ian Paisley, whose Democratic Unionists

have already withdrawn from talks involving the Irish Government. He

said that if the Ulster Unionists ''repented of their going along to the

declaration they should join a Forum for Unionist Unity''.

With local elections looming, the Ulster Unionists, whose comments on

the declaration, which they dislike and mistrust, have been muted, feel

they have gone as far as they can. Convinced that the IRA has no

intention of laying down its arms they are turning their back on the

strategy of all-Ireland talks to which Government sources were still

clinging last night.

Mr Molyneaux made clear that his party's nine MPs would continue to

support the Government on important issues so long as it ''does not

threaten the Union''.