Robinson succeeds Paisley as head of Northern Ireland's DUP party

May 31, 2008, 18:29 GMT

Belfast- Ian Paisley, Northern Ireland's first minister and leader for 37 years of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), was replaced Saturday by his successor Peter Robinson as the head of the party.

Robinson, who has been DUP deputy leader since 1980, formally took over as leader at a meeting in Castlereagh Borough Council headquarters in east Belfast. Robinson is due to replace Paisley as Northern Ireland's first minister on Thursday.

In 1971, Paisley and Robinson were among the founding members of the party, the larger of Northern Ireland's two unionist parties.

Robinson said Saturday he wanted to hold talks with the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Sir Reg Empey, and hoped it would lead to unionist unity. However, Empey has dismissed speculation about a possible merger with the DUP.

Paisley, 82, formed a power-sharing government with the nationalist Sinn Fein in Belfast in May, 2007, in a remarkable U-turn after decades of conflict and bitter emnity between his Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein of Gerry Adams.

The veteran Protestant leader made it clear in interviews Friday that he would not succumb to calls for a 'symbolic gesture' when he leaves office and that his relationship with deputy Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness would 'remain strictly professional to the last.'