(Adds British government comments, paragraphs 10-12) By Paul Hoskins BELFAST, March 24 (Reuters) - Northern Ireland's biggest pro-British Protestant party has rejected a Monday deadline to share power with Catholics and wants a delay, media and other parties in the province said on Saturday. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of hardline cleric Ian Paisley is looking to postpone a deal by six weeks, local media reported. Britain says its March 26 deadline cannot be changed. Senior DUP members left five hours of talks without saying whether they had decided to set aside decades of hostility and work side-by-side with Catholics in governing Northern Ireland. But Paisley, who many believe has come round to the idea of power-sharing but faces opposition from some DUP members, said people in Northern Ireland resented being dictated to by London. "The Ulster people will be persuaded but they are not going to be driven," said Paisley who has always rejected London's deadline as arbitrary. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the DUP and the nationalist, mainly Catholic Sinn Fein they must start jointly running the British province's day-to-day affairs on Monday or accept indefinite direct rule from London. Blair, due to step down in a few months, is keen for a power-sharing agreement to crown peace-making efforts in Northern Ireland during his decade in power. DUP leaders said after the meeting that party members had overwhelmingly backed a resolution but declined to reveal its contents before talks with British government representatives. "I think very clearly that the prime minister will have to respond and I believe that he will respond," Paisley said. The British government was waiting to see what the DUP had to say, a spokeswoman for Blair's office said. Blair is at an EU summit in Berlin. A spokesman for Britain's Northern Ireland Office said the government stood by its position that the Northern Ireland assembly would be dissolved if the province's parties failed to nominate ministers by the Monday deadline. For power-sharing to be revived, the province's parties would have to agree among themselves on the next step, he said. "BREATHING SPACE" Northern Ireland television station UTV reported on its Web site that the DUP would not meet the Monday deadline to nominate ministers to the Northern Ireland administration and that it wanted a six-week extension. Other reports said the DUP would agree to a planning meeting on Monday, attended by Paisley and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. The two men have never spoken to each other. Adams said any delay would cause "deep disappointment and dismay" following elections earlier this month. "The DUP seeks to frustrate the will of the electorate," he said in a statement. "If the DUP wants a functioning assembly after March 26 this can only happen through direct dialogue and agreement with Sinn Fein and the other parties." The Ulster Unionist Party, a smaller pro-British rival of the DUP, said earlier it believed the DUP was pushing for a "half-way house" or "breathing space" that would allow for a delay, but not an end, to plans for a power-sharing government. If the deadline is missed, Dublin will be given a greater say in Northern Irish affairs -- a prospect Paisley finds unpalatable given its unbending support for British sovereignty. Paisley opposed a 1998 peace deal that stemmed three decades of bloody conflict and rejected earlier power-sharing administrations but believes his stance has won concessions. The Irish Republican Army (IRA), responsible for about half of 3,600 killings during 30 years of conflict, met Paisley's central demand in 2005 when it pledged to disarm and pursue a united Ireland peacefully. (Additional reporting by Adrian Croft in Dublin)
