Belfast  - Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised Catholic and Protestant politicians in Northern Ireland Tuesday for having "shown the whole world that hope can triumph over fear."

Brown's speech to members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the regional parliament, was an appeal to the province's political leaders to set aside differences over the controversial issues of justice and policing.

There is currently political stalemate in Northern Ireland between Catholic and Protestant ministers in the power-sharing government over whether policing and justice powers should be devolved from the British government in London to the regional authorities in Northern Ireland.

The dispute has meant that the Executive - or power-sharing government - of Northern Ireland, has not met since June. Brown's intervention came only two days before a scheduled meeting of the Executive Thursday.

"You have shown the whole world that divisions can be overcome by dialogue, that hope can triumph over fear," Brown said, referring to the formation of a power-sharing government in May, 2007, on the basis of the peace agreement signed 10 years earlier.

The differences over security issues are primarily between the leading Protestant party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein, the Catholic/Republican party led by Gerry Adams.

After having transformed Northern Ireland, its economy and its society, the political leaders should show that divisions, however great, could be overcome by talking, said Brown. (dpa)