THE opening session of all party negotiations will not be a one day affair on June 10th but is likely to extend over a considerable period, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, predicted yesterday.
He said the initial session would face considerable difficulties, including finding agreement on its own agenda, on applying the Mitchell Report, and on procedural matters.
Mr Trimble was speaking at a press conference in Belfast to launch his party's "top up", or Regional List of election candidates, which includes a Catholic businessman, Mr John Gorman, active Unionist supporter in the South Down area.
Because of his placing on the list, Mr Gorman (73), the former executive director of the Institute of Directors in the North, is virtually certain to be returned as a member of the forum.
Also on the list and in line for forum membership is the Professor of Western European Studies at the University of Ulster, Dr Anthony Alcock, who is likely to be included in a back up role on the UUP talks team.
Mr Trimble said that this was the most important election to take place in Northern Ireland for decades. It was essential that people should realise that the election raised fundamental constitutional issues, because these would be involved in the subsequent negotiations.
A great deal of work needed to be done in advance on the procedures to be adopted at the negotiations. The speed of the operation and the nearness of the deadlines would militate against the smooth running of the process, and there was no clear picture as yet of what would happen on the first day.
However, the UUP objective for that session was that there had to be total and absolute commitment to the Mitchell Principles, which included an absolute commitment to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations.
He said that the Mitchell Report further stated that that commitment had to be honoured before, during and after talks. "59 we should be looking for a commitment given in such a way that it is clear that that commitment is going to be honoured", he said.
The exact procedure by which that objective was to be achieved was a matter "which we have got to explore further will the other parties", he added.
Mr Trimble would not be drawn on the possibility of a role in the process for the former US senator, Mr George Mitchell, other than to say he had noted the press speculation on this matter.
The whole issue of chairmen was a difficult one. A number of criteria had to be met. While they had got on well with Senator Mitchell then he was in the North preparing his report on decommissioning, discussion on the chairmanship of the talks and the forum was entirely premature, he said.
A key issue, however, was that they had to be assured that they had a person who was going to be absolutely impartial and clearly seen to be so by all the players.
At the press conference in UUP headquarters, Mr Gorman said that his parents came from unionist families in the South of Ireland his mother was from Midleton, Co Cork, and his father from Co Tipperary.
After a distinguished British army career in the second World War, he spent 14 years in the RUC as a district inspector and became chief executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
He said he believed there were very many Catholics in Northern Ireland who wished to remain within the Union.
Mr Trimble said he thought that. Prof Alcock would have a significant role to play in the talks in the area of minority group, rights.