'Cynics confounded' by support for Executive

The people's support for Northern Ireland's powersharing Executive has confounded the sceptics and cynics, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness asserted in Cambridge last night.

The Executive faced difficult political, social and economic issues but he was confident the doubters would be proved wrong, Mr McGuinness told the annual meeting of the British-Irish Association.

"This confidence, I must stress, is not based on complacency but on a conviction and that the road we have embarked upon is one that has been chosen for us by the people," he said at the association's dinner where he was keynote speaker.

"And it is the people, not the sceptics and cynics, whose verdict on us matters," he added.

Mr McGuinness also referred to last weekend's talks in Finland where he and other politicians from Northern Ireland and South Africa advised Iraqi politicians on how to build peace.

This also prompted cynicism about the chances of the Irish peace process being replicated in Iraq but Mr McGuinness said Northern Ireland could "provide a template from which regions embroiled in conflict can learn".

"We are well aware that every scenario has its own particular difficulties and complexities but surely if others can learn from the lessons that our peace process has taught us then it can only be a good thing," he said.

"All of us have a responsibility to create a society that is at ease with . . . diversity from which dynamism and vitality stem. I believe we are seeing the beginnings of that," he added.