Hopes of a breakthrough over the delayed transfer of policing and justice powers have risen, after Northern Ireland's First Minister, Peter Robinson, said he did not want a return to direct rule from Westminster.

Peter Robinson said: "I do not pretend that the government we have at Stormont is perfect: no government is, but it is infinitely more preferable to the only alternative: direct rule, with no say for local people in how we are governed.

"I have no desire to see the country I love relegated to the status of a colony and presided over by a series of here today-gone tomorrow direct rulers, Tory or Labour."

The First Minister is under mounting pressure to reach an agreement with the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness by the middle of next month at the latest.

The British and Irish Governments fear the Stormont Assembly could collapse unless Mr Robinson's Democratic Unionist Party signs up to a deal with Sinn Fein.

Mr Robinson said the shooting dead by dissident republicans earlier this year of two soldiers outside Massereene Barracks, Antrim, and a police officer in Craigavon, Co Armagh, showed there were still wicked people who wanted to drag Northern Ireland back to mayhem and destroy devolution.

"The universal reaction of all right-thinking people in our community, including some who had previously refused to condemn such barbarity, showed us that such wreckers will not succeed," he said.

"Devolved government in its current form might not be the ideal, but it is the best way to make a success of our Province.

"Let us all play our part in making Northern Ireland work for everyone that lives here.

"A safe, secure, stable and prosperous Northern Ireland inside the United Kingdom: that is what I will be working for in 2010."