MR David Trimble declared yesterday that he would require paramilitary equipment of some sort to be actually decommissioned during the opening phase of all party talks. Failing this, the talks would not begin to address substantive issues.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader adopted an interpretation of the Mitchell recommendations which, if he holds to it, could ensure that the opening plenary session on June 10th will fail to agree even basic procedural rules for conducting its business.
At an event staged for press and television at the UUP's Glengall Street headquarters yesterday morning, Mr Trimble symbolically "signed up" to the six Mitchell principles on behalf of his party. He called on all other parties in the North to follow this example.
He then set out the requirements which he saw as essential if the talks were to proceed beyond the opening stage. During this phase, he said, all the parties would have to pledge total and absolute commitment to the Mitchell principles and there would have to be agreement on how this commitment would be honoured and implemented.
"And I want, in addition, concrete evidence that those, agreements will be kept", he said. "So we want to see in the opening session which may last for days or weeks we want to see actual product coming forward, in terms of things appearing."
How and where these "things" appeared, he said, was to some extent up to the parties. By "product" he meant "equipment of some sort".
"Without that product appearing, then the paramilitary parties have not honoured their commitments, and if they have not honoured their commitments they then exclude themselves from the process and the democratic parties proceed without them", he said.
He could not see the talks proceeding on to substantive issues after the opening session, or the two strands being launched, "without concrete evidence of the commitment being fulfilled in practice".
Mr Trimble agreed that his requirement for "concrete evidence" would apply equally to the fringe loyalist parties, representing the loyalist paramilitaries, and to Sinn Fein.
If Sinn Fein was absent from the opening session because of non restoration of the IRA cease fire, the requirement would still be applied to the loyalist parties, if they were there.
Mr Trimble also noted that the opening session would have to agree on an agenda and procedures. He said his party was very concerned at the failure to prepare adequately for the talks and to deal with the preliminary issues.
He strongly questioned the accuracy of reports earlier this week that Sinn Fein had indicated it would commit itself to the Mitchell principles. The reported comments of its leader, Mr Gerry Adams, in this regard had been qualified and should be put to the test, he said.
"I think it is important that people shouldn't just talk about having a positive attitude to Mitchell and speak about it in roundabout terms. Let's have people dealing with the reality of it Mr Trimble commented.
In a separate interview yesterday, Mr Trimble indicated that his party would refuse to discuss the constitutional position of Northern Ireland at the talks, but would not withdraw if it was raised.
On a BBC phone in programme, he said. "I'll tell you what will happen if anyone tries to raise the constitutional position. The technical position with regard to the talks is that any party can put any issue they liked on the agenda.
"And if other people try to put Northern Ireland's position as part of the United Kingdom on the table, we will take that issue off the table.
"We will take it off the table by pointing to the principle of consent, which underlies this process and which every party bar Sinn Fein has accepted. And the inevitable corollary of accepting the principle of consent is that you must then accept the wishes of the greater number of the people of Northern Ireland to be part of the UK."
The Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said yesterday that it was not the prerogative of the British and Dublin governments to determine how the decommissioning issue would be dealt with in the talks process.
He said in a statement "They are two of the participants, and the ground rules must be agreed by all.
"The British and Dublin governments set out their support of the Mitchell principles and of parallel decommissioning, and though the DUP sought, and still seeks, total and immediate decommissioning, the governments built the present process on the understanding that some guns would be decommissioned at the start of talks and further incremental decommissioning would proceed in parallel.
The Alliance leader, Dr John Alderdice, said last night that progress in the talks must not be made a precondition for decommissioning. "The two must move in parallel and neither must he used as an obstacle to achieving the other", he said.