The Ulster Unionist Party leader said yesterday there were ambiguities Mr Major's article, particularly on how decommissioning would be addressed and agreement reached on taking it forward.
The key Mitchell recommendation had been that decommissioning should actually take place parallel to talks. His party would be seeking, at the outset of negotiations, agreement by all the parties that approach, Mr David Trimble said.
If those agreements and those commitments were made, then of course the issue could be taken forward without being an obstacle.
The idea of addressing decommissioning in a fourth strand was an entirely different matter "that's the irresponsible suggestion of Dick Spring, which isn't on the table and is quite unhelpful," said Mr Trimble. "We will stick to the formal statement by the Irish Government of February 28th, which is quite different to the subsequent thoughts of Mr Spring. There is no difference in substance between Mr Spring's position and Sinn Fein's position."
Mr Trimble indicated that if the negotiations were to continue it had to be by agreement of all the principal parties, and his party was not going to be part of the negotiations unless it was agreeable to them.
He said there would be no more compromises by his party "We compromised after the Mitchell report came out. We made a very significant move and said we were prepared to drop our demand for prior decommissioning.
"I have seen no equivalent response, whether from the Irish Government or from Sinn Fein to the compromise that we were prepared to enter into. And, having made one compromise and got absolutely no response, I'm certainly not going to make another one,"
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said that Mr Major's article was "interesting and positive". The prime minister had made it very clear that the talks would be comprehensive, with an open agenda, and that there would be no imposed settlement. He had also suggested that there should be an effort to put a time limit on the talks.
Mr Hume added "I think that the question of decommissioning, he is making clear what (Senator) Mitchell made clear that the disarmament question has to be settled to the satisfaction of all sides but that it should be done parallel to all party talks."
The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, said there was a certain amount of "studied ambiguity" in the article. But what people in the North wanted to hear was that violence was over and that we were into the political mode, seeking to create a style and breadth of vision to achieve the end product of agreement.
"It is absolutely crucial that Sinn Fein should respond, not just to John Major, but to those very deeply felt wishes of the people."
The DUP attacked Mr Major's article as a "surrender" to the IRA. The party's deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said Mr Major was "down on his knees grovelling to them.
The Alliance Party said Mr Major's comments had "constructively helped to clarify" the British government's attitude to the start of the talks. Mr Major was right in saying that decommissioning should not block all of the other negotiations it was a very important issue but it was not the only issue.
The party said it advocated a twin pack approach to accomplish actual decommissioning while talks were continuing. "On the one and, we have ongoing political ad on the other we have the decommissioning process handled by a new international body. In this way, both talks and decommissioning can continue alongside each other without one stalling the Mr David Ervine of the PUP said he believed Mr Major had directed his article to the violent republican movement. There was certainly enough in his clear statement that there would be substantive and meaningful negotiations and that a barrier would not be constructed. The prime minister had in fact made it the responsibility of the parties on how they were to move forward.
The Workers' Party described Mr Major's comments as constructive in content and objective in their outlook. The party's president, Mr Tom French, called on Sinn Fein and the IRA to "stop playing political charades and to restore their ceasefire at once".