UNIONIST politicians are mounting strong opposition to proposals by the two governments on the format and agenda of the all party talks due to start on June 10th.
They are critical of plans for Dublin to jointly co ordinate negotiations on all matters, including the internal affairs of Northern Ireland and they claim that decommissioning will no longer be top of the agenda.
The proposals are contained in the document, "Ground Rules for Substantive All party Negotiations", which was sent to the political parties at the weekend. It states that all parties taking part in talks must show they are exclusively committed to democratic means and that the arms issue must be discussed.
These matters would not have to be dealt with conclusively, however, before other matters were addressed. The document states the opening session of the talks should adopt a comprehensive agenda to ensure a "meaningful and inclusive process".
The British government had previously insisted that the Mitchell principles and decommissioning should be addressed at the start of talks to "the satisfaction of the parties". Under the new agenda, it appears that unionists could no longer block Sinn Fein from advancing further into negotiations.
Discussions would be based on the three strand formula - the internal affairs of Northern Ireland, North/South issues, and relationships between the two governments.
Although the parties will be responsible for managing each of the three strands, the document states that a committee of representatives from both governments would co ordinate progress and the procedures for negotiations.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, described the proposals as totally unacceptable and said they must be reviewed. "There are a lot of things wrong with this paper and I suspect the Northern Ireland Office and the Irish Government who prepared it will have to go back to the drawing board", he said.
The document also states that parties which fail to win elected places at the talks table could still send delegates. This would enable fringe loyalist parties to be present. The main parties would have to agree to their participation, however, and it would not entitle them to take part in formal decisions relating to negotiations.
The Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, stressed that the paper was purely consultative, but the Democratic Unionist Party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, expressed scepticism. "We've had these documents before and they say you can consult. We have had talks with the government about other consultative documents. My feeling is they are not going to take any of the representations on board", he said.
Dr Paisley accused London of back tracking on decommissioning. Hue said that the proposals were an attempt to muzzle the elected representatives of the Ulster people and find a way of delivering our province into the hands of the Dublin dictatorship".
Parties which did not receive an electoral mandate had no right to "gatecrash negotiations", he added. The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said the document was "evidence of the success of IRA bombs". The British government knew that it would be unacceptable to unionists and was just attempting to "buy a further IRA ceasefire", he said.
Sinn Fein's chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said his party had not been consulted. "Exclusion did not work in the past and it will not work now," he added. Inclusive negotiations involving all democratically mandated parties and led by both governments was the only way to achieve a lasting settlement, he said.