THE REV Ian Paisley has announced that he will leave office in May, saying the economic and investment conference in Belfast that month would be a very appropriate time for him to bow out.
He denied he had been forced to quit by controversy surrounding his son or by last month's reversal in a local council byelection.
Dr Paisley told UTV political correspondent Ken Reid last night that he hoped "to finish my course in Westminster and to finish my course here in Stormont".
The First Minister said his North Antrim constituency, which he has represented since 1970, would "not be very pleased if I just bowed out".
"I would never have been in politics only for their faithfulness, their loyalty and dedication to what I have proclaimed to them and what we fought for and had achieved.
"I came to this decision a few weeks ago when I was thinking very much about the conference and what was going to come after it. I thought that was a marker, a very big marker, and it would be a very appropriate time for me to bow out.
"I was reluctant to say to myself 'you can go on and finish your course,', I wanted to do that, but I became convinced that my decision was a right one and I'm more convinced of that than ever."
Asked what would become of his son Ian Paisley jnr following a spate of controversies, Dr Paisley said: "He will just mind his own business, I am not the guardsman of my son, I think he has done very well. I think he has been wrongly accused. I think people who could not get after me got after him thinking they could hurt me."
He said he would continue to stand by him. "As every father loves his family and every father loves his sons, I think he has done very well. When the books are opened and read I think there will be very little said of this period.
"There will be more said about the achievements he has made and his dedication for work."
Dr Paisley declined to express any preference for a candidate to succeed him as First Minister and leader of the party he helped to found 38 years ago. "This is not the Church of Rome, this is not apostolic succession. I have no right to say who will succeed me.
"The person who succeeds me will succeed me when the mark is on the paper and the ballot is cast.
"Whoever that will be will have my support and encouragement. If he wants my advice then he will get my advice if he asks for it, but I will not be sitting like Putin in Russia saying to the president 'this is the way you will have to go'.
"When I make a break it is a break, but I will be there if my services are required to help, to be a helper and a labourer."
Dr Paisley will leave office defiant that his landmark decision to share power with republicans was right. "It was the right thing to do because it was the only thing to do in the circumstances that was going to save us from an eventual united Ireland."
He denounced the British government, but did so without any suggestion of anger.
"Because we were threatened that we were going to be more Irish in our rulership, that Dublin would have a greater say, that we would have absolutely no say - that was the threat made by the British government upon us.
"We were able to so work that we put that to rest. Not even the hardened republicans are talking now about a united Ireland and it will be in a few years' time. I think we have laid to rest that and then come to see 'well we will just have to put up with Paisley and his clan and with the people that believe with him' - so they have.
"I think that they have come to see 'well we have to take it as it is'. I believe that we took what was meant for our destruction, we turned it to our safety and salvation."