January 27, 2010 6:38 a.m. EST

London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sought the help of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to help save the Stormont power-sharing deal in Northern Ireland.

Clinton is in London actually to attend the ministerial meeting on Yemen scheduled on Wednesday and the International Conference on Afghanistan on Thursday. A Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed Brown talked with Clinton on the phone to take a stock on the progress of the talks.

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The main contention between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party is the devolution of police and justice powers. [snip]

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The power sharing involves actually four political parties. The two other parties, the Ulsters Unionists and the Social Democratic Labor Party, were also called by Brown and Cowen to a plenary session on Tuesday to thresh out the issues that threaten the Northern Ireland government.