THE Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, yesterday dismissed as "insufficient" proposals outlined by Mr Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein in Saturday's Irish Times.
Sir Patrick said the contents of the article were "all too familiar and therefore insufficient".
Asked if there would be an official British government response to the article, Sir Patrick said: "That remains to be seen."
In the article, among other things, Mr Adams said any restoration by the IRA of its ceasefire would be genuinely unequivocal. He also said there had to be a removal of any preconditions to Sinn Fein's part in negotiations on the North's future.
Responding to the views of the family of Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, who called for all parties to be at the table, Sir Patrick said: "Everybody wants to see all elected parties at the table but they have to be there on the same basis as each other. That is to say a declared and abundantly clear commitment to exclusively peaceful means."
Sir Patrick was attending the opening in Belfast of a new European Commission Information Point, which was officially opened by the Transport Commissioner, Mr Neil Kinnock, a former British Labour Party leader. The North's three MEPs, Mr John Hume, Mr Jim Nicholson and the Rev Ian Paisley, attended.
Mr Kinnock told reporters he hoped for a full restoration of the IRA ceasefire, "not only in the interests of the people of Northern Ireland, whose interests must come first, but for wider purposes so that this part of the European Union can really progress, in security, towards the opportunities and employment that the people here need. It won't come in its real fullness unless and until there is secure, stable and utterly dependable peace.