Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble is likely to stay away from round table talks this week to revive devolution in Northern Ireland, party sources indicated today.
As efforts to restore the Assembly, power sharing government and other institutions intensified at Stormont, UUP sources believed Mr Trimble would continue to insist that the meeting on Thursday of the British and Irish Governments and Northern Ireland parties was a "sham process".
Mr Trimble signalled today to a Sunday newspaper he would "probably not go to the talks," which his party believed were a distraction from "real negotiations" in Downing Street about the future of the IRA.
"I am probably not going to the talks on Thursday," the Upper Bann MP said. "I am getting increasingly fed up with this behaviour. There is no value in them. The only important talks are in Downing Street."
Sources close to the UUP leader were of the opinion that the party should stay away from the discussions focusing on issues other than decommissioning and paramilitaries in the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Trimble and his colleagues walked out of the discussions before Christmas in protest over a leaked Irish Government document which revealed Department of Foreign Affairs officials in Dublin believed the IRA was still rearming, targeting and recruiting.
Earlier this month, the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party also withdrew from the round-table process, accusing Prime Minister Tony Blair of conducting the real negotiations behind closed doors with the IRA.
The PUP's paramilitary associates in the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Red Hand Commando also suspended their contact with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.
An Ulster Unionist source said: "Given what he has said to the Sunday Timestoday and given the party's position on the talks, it would be unlikely we will be at the talks this week.
"Everybody knows what needs to be done. Everybody knows there is a process going on with Downing Street. Everybody knows what is required of the IRA. That's where the focus should be."
A UUP boycott of the talks will undoubtedly anger other pro-Agreement politicians from Sinn Fein, the nationalist SDLP and the cross-community Alliance and Women's Coalition parties.
Mr Trimble believes there is only one issue which must be dealt with - the complete disarmament of the IRA and the ending of all paramilitary activity.
The remaining participants believe there are other outstanding aspects of the Agreement that need to be addressed.
Sinn Fein, in particular, has been arguing that if the IRA and other terror groups are to disappear, the British Government must introduce further policing reforms capable of securing republican support for the police, produce a programme for dismantling Army watchtowers, give on-the-run paramilitary prisoners an amnesty and honour commitments in the Agreement on equality, human rights and the Irish language.
Party president Mr Gerry Adams yesterday insisted Sinn Fein had a strategy for getting rid of all armed groups but said Prime Minister Tony Blair's Governments and unionists had to play their part.
PA