Northern Ireland's First Minister Ian Paisley and his deputy, Martin McGuinness, were beginning Monday a five-day trip to the United States for meetings with political and business leaders, Irish national broadcaster RTE reported, according to dpa. The two were scheduled to meet President George W Bush and other officials in Washington on Friday and attend a business breakfast at the New York Stock Exchange. The main purpose of the trip is to seek US investment for Northern Ireland. Formerly bitter rivals, Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, and McGuinness, from the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, were sworn in as leaders of a power-sharing executive in Belfast in May.
