The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, has set out strict preconditions for a meeting with Sinn Fein.
In a statement issued to The Irish Times yesterday, a response to a confidential letter he received from Mr Gerry Adams last week, Mr Trimble said "Sinn Fein-IRA" must accept that Northern Ireland's constitutional future was "entirely a matter for the people of Northern Ireland". He said Sinn Fein must be prepared to negotiate on the basis of the Propositions on Heads of Agreement document, "including the creation of a Northern Ireland Assembly and a Council of the Islands". However, this document was opposed by Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, after it was published by the British and Irish governments last month.
Mr Trimble said the decommissioning of IRA weapons was another test of "Sinn Fein-IRA's commitment to exclusively peaceful means. Terrorists must not be allowed to use or threaten to use their weaponry in order to extract concessions at the table."
Mr Trimble's statement came a week after he had received the confidential letter from the Sinn Fein president, requesting a bilateral meeting.
Addressing Mr Trimble as A chara (Irish for Dear Friend), Mr Adams wrote: "I have carefully listened to your statements on this issue and I understand the difficulties which you feel this poses for you." Paying tribute to a "generous" contribution from the UUP chief negotiator, Mr Reg Empey, on the issue, Mr Adams continued: "Given the serious situation on the ground in the North of Ireland and given the democratic imperative that we should meet, I would like to formally and respectfully request that this meeting take place as quickly as possible."
Senior UUP sources stressed Mr Trimble had never ruled out a meeting with Sinn Fein, but Mr Adams would have to undergo a "sea-change" in his attitude to the IRA, similar to the evolution of the former republican activist, now leader of Democratic Left, Mr Proinsias De Rossa.
Asked if the statement represented a hardening of Mr Trimble's position, sources inside the talks said: "For the moment." Talks insiders suggested Mr Trimble's tone may have been influenced by a speech on Monday night to the Londonderry Unionist Association by his parliamentary party colleague, Mr William Ross, one of the UUP's leading sceptics with regard to the multiparty talks.
Mr Ross said: "Let me make my position clear. We should not allow ourselves to be cajoled, or forced, into entering into any negotiations with the IRA in the guise of Sinn Fein." He referred in scathing terms to the Propositions document and other papers issued last month by the two governments. "This party cannot accept the mess of pottage which was published in recent weeks as the way forward for Northern Ireland." Mr Ross said negotiations with Sinn Fein would "dishonour all those who have died in the defence of our nation's integrity". He also complained that decommissioning had "quietly been shelved". Despite internal party pressures, most observers believe a bilateral UUP-Sinn Fein meeting could yet take place. As one source inside the talks put it: "The unionists are not ready for a meeting, but they are not running away from it either." Meanwhile, paramilitary death threats continued to cast a shadow on daily life in the North. Mr Adams called on the RUC to "come clean about the validity and authenticity" of the threats. He said it was strange that the unionist councillor, Mr Andrew Davidson, had been forced out of Derry since he was the only UUP politician to call for direct talks with Sinn Fein.
Progress in North talks discerned; text of Trimble's statement and Adams's letter: page 6