No deal in sight to break Northern Ireland political impasse

The leader of Northern Ireland's largest British Protestant party says there won't be a deal to restore the collapsed power-sharing government until the fall.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said today that her party and Irish nationalists Sinn Fein have not reached a deal, but "we're going to continue talking throughout the summer."

The Catholic-Protestant power-sharing administration has been on ice since January, and several government-imposed deadlines for a deal have passed the latest on Monday.

The parties have blamed each other for the impasse that threatens power-sharing, the key achievement of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord.

UK Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said Monday he remained hopeful a deal could be struck to break the impasse, which has left residents without a functioning government for six months.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)