Biden under political fire in restive N Ireland

US President Joe Biden urged political compromise in Northern Ireland on Wednesday, using a brief visit to promote the benefits of enduring peace and investment, but faced heated criticism from pro-UK hardliners.

"I hope the (Northern Ireland) Executive and Assembly will soon be restored," Biden said in a speech at Ulster University, urging feuding political leaders to restore power-sharing government which has been suspended since February last year.

Biden touted the "unlimited possibilities" for investment and growth offered in the UK-ruled territory, 25 years on from a historic peace deal brokered by the US government.

But peace and stability must always be guarded, he added, saying the January 6, 2021, riot at Congress in Washington had proved that in every generation, "democracy needs champions".

The Irish-American president met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who declared the UK's relationship with the US was "in great shape". Biden also greeted local political leaders ahead of his speech.

He said Tuesday that the priority for his trip -- which includes three days in his ancestral homeland, the Republic of Ireland -- was "to keep the peace" in Northern Ireland.

But senior figures in the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which is under pressure to resume local power-sharing, were strikingly undiplomatic about the president.

Sammy Wilson, a DUP member of the UK parliament in Westminster, branded Biden "anti-British", accusing America's second Catholic president of having "made his antipathy towards Protestants in particular very well known".

Another DUP lawmaker, Nigel Dodds, suggested any mediation efforts would prove futile.

"Pressure from an American administration which is so transparently...