The Government had received no advice from the security forces that would indicate the Provisional IRA was in any way involved in the Markethill bombing, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke.
His comments followed the meeting yesterday between a Government delegation, headed by the Taoiseach, and representatives of Sinn Fein, in Government Buildings.
Mr Burke said there would be a decision by the two governments as to whether or not there was merit to the case for the indictment of Sinn Fein being proposed by the unionists next Tuesday.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, described the meeting as "constructive and positive". The main focus was on moving the process from the present phase into substantive negotiations with all speed.
On the motion of indictment being moved by the Ulster Unionist Party, Mr Adams said that if Mr Trimble had to go through "some synchronised posturings" to accommodate their entry to substantive talks, they could deal with it in that way.
Referring to the head of Republican Sinn Fein, Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, Mr Martin McGuinness said that if people were prepared to give Sinn Fein an increased vote in four elections, "people like Mr O Bradaigh and others need to listen to them."
Welcoming "the lack of gender balance" in the forthcoming presidential election, Mr Adams said Sinn Fein would decide whether to back one candidate or have a free vote after nominations had closed.
The leader of the Alliance Party, Lord Alderdice, said after a meeting with the Government in the afternoon it was clear that the two prime ministers and the two governments were committed to moving the process forward. He indicated that he expected the unionists to attend the talks in the near future. If people came into Stormont with loyalist paramilitary representatives on either side of them on Tuesday to place an indictment and then walked away, he did not think their own electorate would be impressed.
He suggested also that Mr Trimble, as a lawyer, would know that there was not anything that had happened since Sinn Fein affirmed the Mitchell Principles that was really indictable.
