The Sinn Fein delegation entered the negotiating chamber at Stormont Castle in Belfast yesterday to face a row of empty chairs where the unionist parties were meant to sit. But Mr Gerry Adams insisted he was not unduly worried that no unionist was present: "If they are not here today, they will be here tomorrow, or the day after or the day after. And the sooner the better for everyone," he said.
The Sinn Fein president said his party was committed to the peace process and to reaching a historic settlement. "I do think this could be the beginning of the end of conflict on this island if the political will is there to reach agreement," he said.
Sinn Fein was a republican party which wanted to secure an end to British rule but it was armed only with its electoral mandate, he added. There was an onus on the British government to "face up to its responsibilities".
Mr Adams was accompanied a huge entourage of republicans from both sides of the Border. The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, was also optimistic about the talks despite the unionist absence.
It was a historic day and it would be wrong to allow "the contrived drama surrounding the attendance or non-attendance of some to obscure the real objective of the occasion", he said.
"It is crucial that we concentrate on what is the aim of these negotiations and that is to get a lasting political solution based on lasting peace. We all have a duty to be there. We all have a duty to enter these negotiations in a serious way to get a lasting peace settlement."
But in a statement the president of Republican Sinn Fein, Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, compared the the Stormont talks to the 1973 Sunningdale talks, saying they centred on setting up a powersharing executive at Stormont and cross-Border boards.