UK UNIONIST Mr Robert McCartney has warned the Ulster Unionists that they are in danger of being "conned again" by the British government.
Speaking at the Northern Ireland Forum yesterday in a debate to mark the 11th anniversary of the Anglo Irish Agreement, Mr McCartney said the UUP had been misled by the British government in 1985 when the agreement was signed.
It was misled again in 1993 with the Downing Street Declaration and last year with the Framework Document He appealed to the UUP not to repeat the same mistake over decommissioning.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said the agreement was illegitimate and he condemned the Anglo-Irish process. He alleged that despite official denials, the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, was in contact with Sinn Fein.
The deputy leader of the Alliance Party, Mr Seamus Close, said the UUP and the DUP had misled the people of Northern Ireland in 1985. They had promised to smash the Anglo-Irish Agreement, yet it was celebrating its 11th anniversary. They pledged to smash Sinn Fein yet republicans were stronger than ever. They said the Union was finished, yet it was still safe.
Mr Jim Rodgers of the UUP said the British government was trying to bring Sinn Fein into talks and he threatened to release the names of those officials involved if the government did not admit it.
Ulster Democratic Party leader, Mr Gary McMichael, said there was no place for the Anglo-Irish Agreement "nor anything which gives the government of the Republic a role in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland. This is not a precondition, it is a prerequisite to a democratic settlement".
Mr McMichael suggested that a devolved legislative government based on shared responsibility and proportionality be created and a written constitution and a bill of rights be introduced. He criticised the UUP and the DUP for inaction following the agreement.
He warned the unionist parties that if the Stormont talks collapsed, the British and Irish governments would implement their own proposals which would be an extension of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
The UUP chairman of the Forum, Mr John Gorman, criticised SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, for boycotting the body.
