Northern Irish Unionists fail in bid to adjourn parliament

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Northern Ireland's largest pro-British party failed in its attempt to win support from rival parties to adjourn parliament on Thursday, paving the way for a request for the British government to suspend the province's power-sharing administration.

After a senior member of Sinn Fein was arrested on Wednesday in relation to an IRA-linked murder, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said its ministers would resign immediately if its call for an adjournment was not backed or London did not agree to suspend parliament.

"Our decision is to oppose the adjournment because it is not the solution," Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Alasdair McDonnell, whose party the DUP needed to succeed in getting an adjournment, told reporters.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)