BELFAST People on both sides of the Irish border voted on Friday on an historic but controversial peace agreement designed to end 30 years of Protestant-Catholic feuding. The referendum was the first all-Ireland poll since 1918 and electoral officials said they expected a high turnout in Northern Ireland, where campaigning for and against the accord has been intense. Opinion polls have showed the North's Protestant majority bitterly divided over whether to back the agreement.

Some Protestants fear the deal is too soft on Catholic guerrillas and believe it could weaken their prized centuries-old ties to Britain. Catholics on both sides of the border will back the agreement overwhelmingly, the surveys suggested. Results are expected on Saturday afternoon. The peace agreement promises a new 108-seat elected assembly for Northern Ireland, including Catholics and Protestants. It would be the biggest political change on the island since Britain partitioned it in 1921.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has visited Northern Ireland three times to try to persuade voters to back the deal. He made a final plea in Friday's Sun newspaper for a yes vote. Vote for the future. Vote for your children. Vote for peace and prosperity, Blair wrote in the signed article. At a polling station in Saintfield, a mainly Protestant village south of Belfast, 35-year-old William McCullough said he had voted for the pact.

I think it is the only chance. There's no point in going backwards, he told Reuters. Katherine Davison, a 28-year-old secretary, said she had voted no. I listened to Tony Blair and he did absolutely nothing to convince me to vote 'yes', she said. I don't actually think the agreement will bring peace. She and fellow no voter Christopher Mcarroll, 50 said they were worried about the agreement's provisions for the early release of jailed guerrilla bombers and murderers.

I don't believe in these prisoners being taken by the hand and let out, Mcarroll said. The province's 1.18 million voters must answer yes or no to one question on the peace deal, negotiated last month by both the Irish and British governments and eight political parties. In the Irish Republic, 2.75 million electors will decide whether to endorse the deal and drop their long-standing constitutional claim to sovereignty over Northern Ireland. U.S. President Bill Clinton has added his voice to the yes campaign.

In a televised message on Thursday, Clinton said he hoped voters would turn tragedy into triumph and promised them trade and U.S. investment if they succeeded. But to those ... who would revert to violence, you must know that you will find no friends in America, he added. (Reuters)