THE Sinn Fein president has again urged the British and Irish governments to host jointly multilateral discussions to prepare the ground for all party talks by the end of February.
The Sinn Fein national chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, in a statement yesterday, said Mr Gerry Adams had written to both governments urging them to convene multilateral discussions "among those parties which are prepared to attend such discussions".
Mr McLaughlin said the two governments should adopt "a positive and energetic approach" to the political segment of the twin track approach, as a prelude to the start of all party negotiations.
With a timeframe aimed at all party talks by the end of February the governments needed to act decisively and purposefully, Mr McLaughlin said. The international decommissioning body hag adopted an urgent and energetic approach in examining the arms issue. The governments had a clear duty to adopt a similar approach to the other track, the preparation for all party talks.
No party should have a veto over the start of all party talks, as such a veto was undemocratic and denied the rest of the parties the right to engage in a democratic negotiations process aimed at resolving the conflict in Ireland permanently.
Mr McLaughlin's statement appeared to acknowledge the validity of the twin track process and to endorse the exercise being carried out by the international body on decommissioning. However, he said the twin track approach, "if it is to have any meaning", must remove all preconditions to all party talks.
The DUP party secretary, Alderman Nigel Dodds, yesterday reiterated his party's firm opposition to British government contacts with Sinn Fein. He said in a statement that even if the present series of killings were to be halted, "it remains wrong for the British government to be maintaining links and conferring legitimacy upon Sinn Fein/IRA".
Meanwhile, a delegation from the SDLP women's group, led by the party's spokeswoman on women's affairs, Ms Brid Rodgers, had an hour long meeting yesterday with the British Labour Party's shadow secretary of state, Dr Marjorie Mowlam.
According to an SDLP statement, the delegation expressed the party's concern over the British government's "reluctance to move towards all party dialogue", the continuation of beatings, and in particular the recent murders in Belfast and Lurgan.
The women also explained the reasons for their opposition to a return to a Stormont assembly and to any move away from the established three stranded approach.