Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness has said if unionist parties refused to attend negotiations the British government should negotiate directly with nationalists. Speaking at a Bogside rally last night, he said while Sinn Fein would press for a united Ireland during its
Stormont negotiations, it was not making that demand a precondition before talks. "You can see that David Trimble and the unionist parties do not want to go to the negotiating table, but go to the negotiating table they will.
"And if they don't, then the British government must come to the negotiating table and nationalist Ireland must negotiate with the
British government the future of this entire island," he said. Mr
McGuinness said Sinn Fein would place on any talks agenda its belief that there "must be an end to British rule on this island." "We are putting down quite clearly before we go into talks that, before we start negotiations, we go there with a very firm political agenda to assert the rights of Irish nationalists and republicans to peace and freedom in their own country", he said.