Speaking after Protestant firebrand Ian Paisley and his former Catholic rival Martin McGuinness were sworn in as leaders of a power-sharing government in Belfast, Ahern said he hoped centuries of division could be ended.

The new self-rule government in the British province showed that "peace is not impossible and conflict is not inevitable," Ahern said at the inauguration of the 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly in the Stormont Parliament Buildings.

"We can put the divisions of the past behind us forever. Northern Ireland is now a place of peace and promise.

"Today relationships on this island and between Ireland and Britain stand transformed.

"As we step from this place of history, we must be resolved that this should be the last generation on these islands to feel the anger and pain of old quarrels."

Set up under the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, power-sharing institutions were restored Tuesday after they were suspended for nearly five years.

Northern Ireland has a chance to throw off the "chains of history," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday as former Catholic and Protestant rivals were sworn in to share power in Belfast.

"Look back and we see centuries pockmarked by conflict, hardship, even hatred among the peoples of these islands," he said after Protestant firebrand Ian Paisley and former Catholic militant Martin McGuinness were sworn in.

"Look forward today and we see the chance at last to escape those heavy chains of history," he added in a speech, flanked by McGuinness, Paisley and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern.

Referring to "this beautiful but troubled land," he added that Tuesday's inauguration reflected "the fundamental principle on which the peace process has been based: the acceptance that the future of Northern Ireland can only be governed successfully by both communities working together."