By Kevin Smith

DUBLIN, Jan 29 (Reuters) - London and Dublin will push this week to revive power-sharing between Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants after Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein reversed decades of opposition to the province's law and order system.

Sinn Fein's mostly Catholic membership voted on Sunday to back a policing and justice system in Northern Ireland that it has long viewed as biased in favour of the majority Protestants, who want the province to remain part of the United Kingdom.

The landmark vote removed a key obstacle to the restoration of a Belfast-based regional power-sharing government by a March 26 deadline set by the British and Irish governments.

The power-sharing government was central to a 1998 peace agreement that has largely ended 30 years of conflict between Protestants and minority Catholics in which some 3,600 people were killed but the assembly has been suspended since 2002.

Taking advantage of the breakthrough created by the Sinn Fein vote, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern will meet in London on Tuesday to try to push forward efforts to restore the regional parliament.

But restoration of the government is far from assured with the biggest pro-British grouping, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), yet to be convinced Sinn Fein will follow through on its pledge.

"The ball remains firmly in Sinn Fein's court, not just to talk the talk, but to walk the walk," Ian Paisley Jr, DUP member and son of the party's leader, told RTE radio.

Acceptance by Sinn Fein of the rule of law was an essential condition set by the DUP before it would consider sharing power with its arch enemy but the DUP says it needs to see concrete evidence of Sinn Fein's backing.

A spokesman for Blair welcomed the "genuinely historic significance" of Sinn Fein's Sunday vote but accepted there was still work to be done.

"An executive government will only be formed on March 26 if two things happen: if the words have been translated into action and if the DUP commit to power-sharing," he said.

Blair and Ahern are expected to discuss assembly elections planned for March 7 which will pave the way for a power-sharing executive which they want up and running by March 26.

ALL OVER "BAR THE SHOUTING"?

A report by the province's paramilitary watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), on Tuesday, may help assuage DUP misgivings with further evidence Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrillas have withdrawn from criminal activities.

The IRA killed nearly 300 police officers during the conflict and was responsible for nearly half the 3,600 deaths in its struggle to unite the northern province with Ireland.

While London and Dublin may yet achieve their goal of restoring a regional government in time for Blair's departure from office and an Irish election, both later this year, the DUP is still far from being on board.

Party leader Ian Paisley has yet to overcome years of vociferous opposition to Irish nationalists on his own part and signs of serious resistance from hardliners within his party.

"Dr. Paisley's authority and political direction is under assault within the DUP," the Irish Times said in an editorial.

However, it noted he had said repeatedly he would "not be found wanting" if Sinn Fein moved to support the police.

"Yesterday we did see a piece of history being made," political analyst Harry McGee wrote in the Irish Examiner.

"With it came an acceptance that it was all over as far as the IRA was concerned, bar the shouting, of course. And be assured, with Ian Paisley and the DUP involved, there will be plenty of that over the next few months." (Additional reporting by Sophie Walker and Chris Baldwin)

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