MR JOHN Major has said it would be "fatal" if the democratic parties in the North "decided that Sinn Fein and the IRA have a veto" over political progress.
At the first press confcrence of his "near term election campaign, the British prime minister said: "To hand them a veto by saying the peace process cannot proceed without them would be to enhance their power.
If the constitutional parties were wise, he said, "they will seek to make progress in the discussions up to, during and after the general election, whether or not Sinn Fein are enabled to arrive at the table."
He said talking of peace one day and lobbing bombs the next "is a very curious way to indicate their attraction to the peace process".