BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Northern Ireland's ruling coalition of pro-British and pro-Irish parties strengthened their control of the province's assembly, election results showed on Saturday, in a boost for the peace process.

Former bitter foes, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and nationalist Sinn Fein are set to lead a second coalition government in Northern Ireland after the poll confirmed their position as the two largest parties.

With three seats yet to be filled in a laborious manual count - the election was on Thursday - the two parties held 65 of the assembly's 108 seats, compared with 64 in the previous session.

The results represent a rebuff to militant Irish nationalists whose recent campaign of murder and bombings has united the political establishment against them and bolstered a 1998 deal that ended three decades of sectarian violence.

"The mature and unified response to the dissidents' campaign has changed people's perceptions of the two big parties and their leaders," said Neil Jarman, director of the Institute for Conflict Research.

Once the parties of the extreme in each of their communities, the DUP and Sinn Fein are now firmly in the mainstream and DUP leader Peter Robinson looks certain to retain his role as First Minister in Northern Ireland.

Martin McGuinness, a former senior commander in the now defunct guerrilla group the Irish Republican Army (IRA), will be Deputy First Minister when the new executive is sworn in next week.

"I call on all parties to work together toward the common good and economic stability," McGuinness said. "I would like to see all parties working in the spirit of co-operation."

Turnout was 54.5 percent, its lowest level at any election since the assembly, which controls health, policing and education, was formed in 1998 and down from 63.5 percent four years ago.

Analysts linked the poor turnout to apathy as bitter sectarian tensions between the largely Protestant pro-British community and the largely Catholic pro-Irish side are replaced by everyday issues.

Reuters