Peter Hain, the newly appointed Northern Ireland secretary, has said that securing a lasting peace settlement for the province will be a priority for Labour's third term.

Hain said Tony Blair had stressed the importance of forging a permanent deal in Northern Ireland and the prime minister would "crack the problem".

And he pledged to work actively with all the political parties in the coming weeks to try and carve out a way ahead.

Hain replaces Paul Murphy as the man charged with negotiating progress towards a lasting peace in the troubled province; he was given the role in Friday's Cabinet reshuffle.

Speaking on Sky's Sunday with Adam Boulton programme, Hain said: "We've had seven years of peace and stability and increasing prosperity in Northern Ireland and a whole change in the political culture and the way the different communities live their lives and that needs to be built upon."

But he cautioned that there has been increasing polarisation in the outcome of the election - a trend which he said was clear in the assembly elections and the local elections before last Thursday.

Pressed on whether party leaders in Ulster trust the prime minister to deliver on Northern Ireland, Hain replied: "People say all sorts of things in the heat of the moment."

He added: "This is the prime minister, Tony Blair, who negotiated the Good Friday agreement.

"People said that that wasn't achievable. He did it.

"This is the prime minister, Tony Blair, who has maintained a situation where the people of Northern Ireland have had seven years of unparalleled peace and prosperity and stability."

Hain has been in contact with Northern Ireland politicians ahead of his visit to Belfast on Monday.

He had telephone conversations with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and DUP leader Ian Paisley.

But Hain's work in Northern Ireland is unlikely to be straightforward - particularly as the success of the hardline DUP in Thursday's election at the expense of the more moderate UUP has changed the political landscape of the province.

The DUP is firm that it will not make the same mistakes that the UUP made in trusting republicans.

The party is insisting there is no place in government for "terrorists, paramilitaries or criminals" and that IRA guns must have be destroyed and its activities halted for good before Sinn Fein can sit down with them and share power.

And the resignation of UUP leader David Trimble following his failure to hold on to his Upper Bann constituency will not aid Hain's immediate challenges.

The UUP is in a state of disarray and it will be difficult for party members to focus on the complex political process in the near future.