DOUBTS about the viability of the Stormont multi-party talks in creased last night as Mr David Trimble rejected Dr Mo Mowlam's proposed formula to break the logjam over the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.
The Northern Secretary and the Ulster Unionist Party leader clashed on decommissioning at a Stormont meeting as news broke of the two RUC officers' murders.
The sense of mounting political crisis heightened as Mr Trimble told Dr Mowlam her proposal for dealing with decommissioning as a means of moving the talks on to substantive political negotiations was `a non-runner".
Senior unionist sources told The Irish Times last night: "We've thrown the paper [on decommissioning] out. It is absolutely not a runner at all."
The sources said Dr Mowlam would have to "go back to the drawing board" to produce an acceptable alternative ahead of an expected plenary session of the talks to be held at Stormont next Tuesday. They suggested Mr Trimble would seek a meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, if the new draft proved equally unacceptable.
Dr Mowlam had previously warned the House of Commons that the talks were "in danger of running into the sands" unless the decommissioning roadblock could be swiftly overcome. She is believed to have secured Dublin's backing for a proposal which could put the issue before a committee of the talks process, with its agenda furnished by the recommendations of the Mitchell report, and with the international chairman having the final "call" on how a decommissioning process should be implemented.
However, the UUP angrily dismissed this plan as "a return to Dick Spring's fourth strand" and told Dr Mowlam it would not work. Sources last night suggested Dr Mowlam had been upset by the UUP reaction, and was surprised by suggestions that officials had not briefed her on agreements and understandings made with the previous ministerial team prior to the British general election.
Even before yesterday's killings of two community policemen, Dr Mowlam faced a seemingly impossible task in attempting to reconcile the UUP, the SDLP and Irish Government positions on decommissioning. Mr Trimble had made it clear he was prepared to shelve the issue but would reserve his position should Sinn Fein eventually enter the process. Unionist pressure will now increase on Dr Mowlam and Mr Blair to signal their determination to proceed in that process without Sinn Fein's participation.
It was not clear last night what effect yesterday's killings would have on a planned ministerial statement by either Mr Blair or Dr Mowlam, possibly as early as Thursday defining the British government's attitude on a number of key questions, including the timetable envisaged for Sinn Fein's entry into talks after a new IRA ceasefire. There is speculation that the government will move quickly to place the content of its "clarificatory talks" with Sinn Fein into the public domain.